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The celebration surrounding Dhori Mata draws upon what is called “inculturation.” After the Second Vatican Council, India was a primary area for liturgical experimentation. Going by the name, “inculturation,” the movement for liturgical adaptation, was most specifically associated with the work of the National Liturgical Center in Bangalore under the direction of D.S. Amalorpavadass. What emerged during this period of experimentation were “12 Points of Adaptation” to Indian culture, which were approved by the Vatican in 1969.

Every Friday night, for almost all of the night, huge crowds gather in the outskirts of Enugu, Nigeria for a prayer event that is easily among the best attended weekly gatherings in the Catholic world. Worship combines preaching, ecstatic Eucharistic adoration, two Masses, anointing and dance in a way that is hard to imagine for anyone who has not seen it before.

The growth of the Church in Igboland has depended from the beginning on the dedicated work of lay catechists. At Hearts of Jesus and Mary Parish there is an abundance of lay organizations.

Traditional Igbo society was built on a series of initiation rituals that spanned the whole course of life, from naming rituals after birth to funerals that were conceived as initiation into the realm of the ancestors. Christian missionaries worked to eliminate or replace many initiation rituals, but some continue as culturally important.