Each Esan village has at least one traditional annual festival which is celebrated periodically, mostly during harvest periods. Festivals are not celebrated simultaneously throughout Esanland, instead the villages have specific periods for their own celebration. In most villages, two categories of festivals exist; those of women and those of men. The women festivals, like the type celebrated at Uromi, is called “Igbawasague”, is usually performed in June and July when cereals are matured. However, in most village groups in Esanland, festivals called Ugbe or Ihunlan were generally celebrated by all and sundry. Its celebration marks the annual commencement of the harvesting of yams which the Esan people regard as the “king” of farm crops. The most important and widely celebrated feast in Esan land is “Ihuan”, the new yam harvest festival. Ihuan is celebrated clan by clan and in each clan, one village after another. The new yam festival is an annual event which involves entertainment and a lot of eating, drinking and general merri-making; particularly if the harvest in that year is really bountiful. Friends and relations from other places are welcome to the lavished feast for three to four days. Various dances are held in both night and day to mark festival as significant aspects of the celebrations.

The right to stipulate a day on which a village festival is to be celebrated is a prerogative of the Edion and Ekhaimo (Eldest) of each village. The traditional ruler of the clan normally signal the commencement of the festival when he, accompanied by top traditional chiefs who handle various palace affairs, dance to the shrine of the particular deity responsible for the rich harvest, and the specific deity of the festival being. In doing so, prayers and sacrifices are offered to thank and appease the associated deities. Such sacred dances by the Onojie, who is the main ruler of the town, are usually accompanied by pulsating drumming with large crowds of people at the background all wishing the traditional ruler success (lyare) as he proceeds to pay homage to the deities.
 
The festivities decision to commence or start day announcements usually begin with a loud gun barrel explosion. A significance of those festivals is the provision of a platform for nurturing and improving inter-group relations between the villages and towns.

• Ukpe Festival
  As the name implies Ukpe (year) is celebrated in June by the villages comprising Ewohimi to mark the end of one year and the beginning of another. Homage is paid to ancestors to express gratitude to them for protecting the people throughout the year.
  The festival lasts for four days and it is held separately by the various villages. Starting with Idumuagbor and lastly by Ikeken. The celebration features entertainment, attendance and services at the ancestral shrines, exchange of gifts and traditional dances. The festival ends on a market day when everybody appear gorgeously and dances to the market-places in Ewohimi.

• Ighele Festival
  Ighele festival is one of the most important festivals in Esan land. It is celebrated annually in Ewu during the month of June and is significant to the inhabitants of Ewu, because of the belief that Ighele brings peace and prosperity to the people. In addition, the festival is meant to appease the ancestors of Ewu people. A week to the festival, the area which encloses the Igbele shrine is cleared and beautifully decorated in the traditional norm of Ighele. Young people, particularly the girls, and adults appear in their lush, vibrantly colored, best dresses and attires. The wearing and decorations of some body parts with gold trinkets and other expensive ornaments are common. Those who can afford large and complex coral beads also wear them for the occasion. The young girls and women would normally dance round the town in a procession.

• Oto Uromi Festival
  As the name implies, Oto-Uromi (Uromi land) is celebrated for a day in July or early August to appease the land and the spirits of the ancestors of Uromi so as to produce great harvest. It is always held on an Uromi market day which is fixed by the Onojie of Uromi, who acts in conformity with the advice of the elders and chiefs. An interval of 15 days is always given between the announcement and the date of celebration to allow for preparations by each family across the town.

As the case in most villages and towns, it is a customary law that nobody goes to the farm on the day of celebration. Although the entire people of Uromi are involved in it, people from Unuwazi village called Egbele-Iwienbolo and Ikekiala, are participants and play great roles in the organization and performances of the festival.
The ceremony is performed by Iwienbolo people on a chosen spot where four sticks of chalk, four kola-nuts, some cowries, ripe pumpkins, and a dog are used in appeasing the soil. 

In Africa, the concept of God is that the Supreme Being is not alone in the spiritual realm but with other divinities, spirits, and ancestors. This belief varies from one African country to the other. In Nigeria, different communities uphold their traditions by celebrating festivals which involves dancing amidst various cultural music and songs. These traditional festivals and traditional music, songs, and dances, including the Igbabonelimhin or Ikhien-elimhin are performed periodically or as needed, in most traditional Esan communities. Ikhien-elimhin means, “the dance of the spirit”, while Igbabonelimhin means, “to clap for and applaud the spirit”, in unity and unison as its masquerades dance spontaneously in response to every beat from the traditional mother of drums (Iyen-ema).  
The Igbabonelimhin dance is an acrobatic dance performed mostly by young men. It involves unprecedented, and unpredictable varieties of dance moves, including, spinning, and somersaulting repeatedly and at high speed in spaces above ground. The dance moves defy gravity, in sequential consistency to spontaneously timed beats. The dance and its featured dramas are performed on special days, including New Year day. Dances performed during traditional ceremonies or festivals are of two types, a) Ritual dances and b) Social dances. Some of the extra-theatrical functions associated with the Igbabonelimhin includes, but not limited to: healing of polluted lands, banishing of evil hands, thieves and spirits, oath taking and swearing to innocence in the land in times of epidemic, drought, or unexplained recurring deaths.

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