African World Festival is the seventh. Last week I pointed out the six ethnic festivals at Maier Festival Park having Sunday religious services. Add another to the list because African World Festival also holds one. And, like all but one of the rest, allowed free admission to the fest.
Six of the festival masses, including African World, are Catholic so I'm comfortable. I had to be comfortable to sit through a two and a half hour service at the lakefront today. It seems this year I'm trying to go to as many ethnic festival masses as possible. As I may have mentioned; it's not only an inexpensive way to get into the different fests to try them, but diversity of prayer is also a great way to learn about other cultures.
The 10th Annual Sacred Liturgy at African World Festival was engaging, vibrant and electric. There was enough energy emitted from the choir, drummers, dancers and musicians to spread to the audience and we clapped often. The choir may have received the most applause but the sermon also got it's share. A Dominican priest from Chicago gave the homily and it started out in the usual way. But soon Father Paul gained speed and momentum and his sermon started sounding more like song than speech. His words all came together so rapid-fire that I thought I was at an auction for Jesus' Love and Father Paul was the auctioneer. It was wild, it was why I was there, and I applauded him.
After mass I walked around and tried to find lines of people at food stands, which would indicate to me which ones to be the best. I didn't find any lines, there weren't a lot of people there, so I bought some gumbo and worked up a sweat eating the spicy meal out in the sun. As I walked around the marketplace I kept seeing the same product offered -- one I'm not familiar with. Shea butter was being sold at probably more than half the stands and looked messy, especially when the sun got to it. African shea butter is made from the seed of the shea tree and is supposed to be better than cocoa butter for skin and best when it's not processed. There were huge chunks of it everywhere I looked.
As I headed toward the exit I discovered some long lines at the fried catfish and wings stand, but by then I was full of gumbo and had to get going.
