<P> The New Yam Festival of the Igbo people (Orureshi in the idoma area, Iwa ji, Iri ji or Ike ji, depending on dialect) is an annual cultural festival by the Igbo people held at the end of the rainy season in early August . </P> <P> The Iwa ji festival (literally "new - yam eating") is practiced throughout West Africa (especially in Nigeria and Ghana) and other African countries and beyond, symbolizing the conclusion of a harvest and the beginning of the next work cycle . The celebration is a very culturally based occasion, tying individual Igbo communities together as essentially agrarian and dependent on yam . </P>

When is the festival of new yam held