Overview

Egúngún: Sacred Regalia for the Ancestors
Sep 20, 2025 – Dec 14, 2025

The Yorùbá word egúngún may be translated as “supernatural powers concealed.” As such, “egúngún” may refer to an ancestral spirit who has temporarily returned to earth to bestow their blessings upon the living or to their lavish, eye-catching regalia.

According to the Yorùbá religious worldview, our ancestors have the power to intervene in our daily lives, for good or ill. Despite the influence of Christianity and Islam, many Yorùbá-speaking communities enthusiastically invoke the presence and blessings of family ancestors at local annual festivals, when dozens of egúngún emerge from their shrines to join the community in spectacular celebrations of music, poetry, song, and dance. The physical manifestation on earth of an egúngún is made possible by male members of the Egúngún ritual association who, aided by training and specialized ritual, are understood to transform into the incarnated spirit of an ancestor when clothed in egúngún regalia.

The egúngún on display is of the paka type, which consists of multiple layers of cloth attached to a horizontal beam that rests on the head of the individual wearing the regalia. An egúngún’s layered panels are designed to be seen in motion: as an egúngún dances through the streets, the multicolored panels of its regalia swirl outward to create a dazzling spectacle that suggests the presence of an otherworldly entity.

— Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art