29/09/2021
The sacred Month of November!!!!!!mwedzi wambudzi!!!!!
Jinda Mutinhima
NOVEMBER, inyanga yeMbuzi in Ndebele or mwedzi waMbudzi in Shona, is a sacred month in Zimbabwe. It’s significance has been the subject of debate for years.
There are many different calendars actively used around the world, and all are basically solar, lunar, lunisolar/solilunar.
As the name suggests, a solar calendar is based on the Earth’s rotation around the Sun.
Lunar calendars are based on the rotation of the Moon around Earth and are used mainly for religious purposes; while lunisolar/solilunar calendars combine the two.
Today almost everyone takes the precision of traditional calendars for granted, unaware of the long threads spooling out from clocks and watches backward in time, running through virtually every major revolution in human science, all linked to the measurement of time.
The African traditional calendar is based on the Earth’s rotation around the Moon, making its days shorter.
The basics are that in November people don’t marry, they don’t perform traditional rites and so forth. But what has not been explained is: why is this so? And when does the traditional November start and end?
The traditional month does not follow the modern day calendar but follows the moon. It starts around mid-October or in the final third of October when there is the full moon (mwedzi wagara, in Shona).
It ends round around mid-modern November and this is all determined by the Earth’s movement around the Moon.
According to African tradition, this is the month that the ancestors do not deal with earthly issues but deal with Musiki, God, on various issues tabled before the ancestors during the course of the year.
Traditionalist and African tradition researcher Mr Amego Mukucha says the month of November is when the ancestors meet God. It is measured by the Full Moon (Jeneguru).
“The modern day calendar is behind our traditional calendar so the month of November comes earlier. And it is during this tim
