Food
In Sierra Leone, the staple food is rice. "If I haven't had my rice, I haven't eaten today," is a popular saying. Sierra Leoneans eat rice at least twice a day. Only women and girls prepare the food. They usually cook in big pots on a three-stone stove (three big rocks that support the pots). Firewood or charcoal is the main fuel, except among some city dwellers, who use gas or electricity.
If you visit a Sierra Leonean friend, he or she will almost always invite you to stay and eat. Usually the men and boys eat separately from the women and girls. Everyone washes their hands before they eat, and then they gather around in a circle with a huge dish of food placed in the middle. Sharing is an important part of life in Sierra Leone, and each person eats from the part of the big dish that is right in front of him or her. It is very bad manners to reach across the dish! Only the right hand is used for eating; the left hand is considered unclean.
When you are eating, you usually don't talk. Talking shows a lack of respect for the food. It is rude to lean on your left hand while you are eating. People usually drink water only after a meal is over.
If you visit a Sierra Leonean friend, he or she will almost always invite you to stay and eat. Usually the men and boys eat separately from the women and girls. Everyone washes their hands before they eat, and then they gather around in a circle with a huge dish of food placed in the middle. Sharing is an important part of life in Sierra Leone, and each person eats from the part of the big dish that is right in front of him or her. It is very bad manners to reach across the dish! Only the right hand is used for eating; the left hand is considered unclean.
When you are eating, you usually don't talk. Talking shows a lack of respect for the food. It is rude to lean on your left hand while you are eating. People usually drink water only after a meal is over.
Clothing
Name given in Sierra Leone to cloth made from locally grown cotton, carded and spun into thread, and woven into strips on traditional looms. The strips are then sewn together edge to edge to form the finished cloth. The simpler types of country cloth are plain or warp-striped, using threads of natural brown cotton or threads dyed different shades of blue or green using traditional dyes. More elaborately conceived cloths called kpokpo (q.v.) are made by sewing together strips with variations in the weft that combine to form a complex pattern across the cloth as a whole. In the past possession of such cloths was regarded as a sign of wealth and prestige and they even functioned as a kind of currency. Country cloth is made up into shirts and gowns and headgear, particularly clothing associated with traditional ceremonies, such as the ritual gown of a Temne paramount chief or the gowns worn by boys at the completion of their initiation. Country cloth was used in hammocks and also in wrapping the dead for burial.
- The Sierra Leonean National Day is a specific date on the 27 April (1961) to observe the Independence Day of Sierra Leone.
- Often this public holiday in Sierra Leone is not called as National Day. However, the banks, schools along with other public buildings would be closed.
- The 1st of January is celebrated as The New Year in Sierra Leone to mark the beginning of a new calendar year.
- May Day can be another national holiday in Sierra Leone which is observed to commemorate the achievements of the labor movement.
- Christmas Day is a public holiday in the majority of of the countries and observed on December 25 to commemorate the birth of Jesus.
- The Orthodox Christian and Western-Roman Catholic patronal feast day or 'name day' are celebrated in each place's patron saint's day, according to the Calendar of saints.
- The largest holidays for Muslims in Sierra Leone are Eid ul-Fitr. This is celebrated immediately after the end of Ramadan and Eid al-Adha which is celebrated at the conclusion of the Hajj.
- Diwali (Festival of Light) is amongst the significant holidays observed by Hindus, Jains and Sikhs who reside in Sierra Leone.