eSwatini Tourism has confirmed the dates of the 2023 Umhlanga Reed Dance. The biggest cultural event in eSwatini is set to start on the 29 August 2023, with the main day (Day 7) set to take place on Monday (04 September 2023). It will be on this day when the main ceremony occurs, with the dancing attended by His Majesty King Mswati III. 04 September 2023 will be a public holiday in eSwatini.
Visitors are welcome to visit the annual Umhlanga Reed Dance, but are vastly outnumbered by the participants! This is a traditional event that allows spectators, not one that exists for spectators.
The Reed Dance ceremony, also known as "umhlanga", is a centuries old tradition where the eSwatini's unmarried and childless females present their newly cut reed to the Queen Mother to protect her residence. The highlight of the event is the reed-giving ceremony. Tens of thousands of maidens from eSwatini, led by Swazi princesses, gather at the Queen Mother's royal village, the Ludzidzini Royal Residence in Lobamba,
dressed in traditional attire; bright short beaded skirts with
colourful sashes revealing their bare breasts to dance and sing and
celebrate the unification of the Kingdom’s women. King Mswati lll,
who sometimes makes use of the occasion to publicly court a prospective
fiancée, joins the celebrations to pay tribute to the maidens.
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