Joyful Social Life in Things Fall Apart

This time rereading Things Fall Apart I am struck by the many subtle portrayals of a joyful social life of the Ibo. I wonder what scenes in the novel strike you in this way. Early on Unoka, Okonkwo's father, remembers the cool evenings of the harmattan and the arrival of kites -- the soaring raptor pictured here,

Old men and children would then sit round log fires, warming their bodies. Unoka loved it all, and he loved the first kites that returned with the dry season, and the children who sang songs of welcome to them.

Or preparing for the New Yam Festival,

Okonkwo's wives had scrubbed the walls and the huts with red earth until they reflected light. They had then drawn patterns on them in white, yellow and dark green. They then set about painting themselves with cam wood and drawing beautiful black patterns on their stomachs and backs. The children were also decorated...

(By the way, apparently the New Yam Festival is still an important Igbo celebration.) One of the joys of this novel is the way it celebrates Igbo life -- and that stands in a contrast to problems in the society, and to the changes that are to come. I think Achebe wants us to see the beauty in the Igbo way of life, and to see how tragic it is that it falls, or, perhaps more accurately, is torn, apart.