Throughout the annual Edo calendar, ceremonies and festivals mark important points in time. Through the history of the Benin Kingdom, different ceremonies and festivals have been introduced, practised and have also fallen out of favour with different Obas. For example, the Ugie Oro festival, introduced by Oba Esigie and which celebrated his victory against the Atta of Idah during the 16th century (Ben-Amos, 1995[53]). In contrast, the Ague festival stopped being practised during the reign of Oba Eweka II in the early 20th century. Examples include the Ikhurhe festival which begins the calendar, the Ugivie bead festival, the Ugioro, Eghute, Orhu, Ugue-Erhaoba and the Igue festival which marks the end of the year. Today many of these festivals continue to be practised, in particular Igue (Ben-Amos, 1995[53]).
Although these ceremonies are intangible heritage, there are also tangible material aspects too, and many of these were looted by the British in 1897. Although grouped together here, specific objects would be used for specific festivals. For example, at the Ague festival, Aquamanile filled with water are used by the Oba to cleanse himself (Curnow, 1997[30]). At the Odudua masquerade, Odudua cast brass Masks are used by performers.