The Fire Festival of the Dagomba people (Bugum = fire, Chugu = festival); a torch-lit communal ceremony held annually to honour ancestors, ward off evil spirits, and mark the spiritual new year. Families carry bundles of burning grass as torches and process through the fields before converging on the palace. The festival predates the founding of the Kingdom of Dagbon and is one of Ghana's oldest living ceremonies.
During Bugum Chugu, the Yaa Naa leads the royal procession bearing a great torch — as the king's fire moves through the palace, it symbolically purifies the entire kingdom for the coming year.