Hair cutting

Saturday, November 14

What a busy day!  Market this morning began around 6:30, and Sarah and I went down a little before 7:00 with our banana muffins.  As usual, they sold quickly, and we were able to find some eggplant, tomatoes, pineapple, and papapya.  I'm so excited that pinapple are finally becoming ripe!  I'm going to plant each top in hopes that next December, we'll have a nice crop.  We also bought lots of obikola (cassava) to make lelenga.  Benjamin and Olivia went swimming while Katherine alternated between swimming and hanging out with Auntie Skita. 

 

Yesterday, on our family walk around the village, we came across Sarah Kiko and her sisters, Grace and Daisy.  They were making parcels of lelenga which is unusual for a Friday afternoon.  Usually, it's made on Saturday afternoon and cooked all night to be eaten after church on Sunday.  So I asked if there was a special occassion.  Evidently several people have been growing their hair out in mourning for the young man who died while we were here in Marulaon in August.  Saturday (today) was the hair-cutting ceremony for three of them, so Sarah Kiko's family was making lelenga for the celebration.

 

So during market, I asked around about our family attending the hair-cutting ceremony.  Everybody seemed to think it would fine for us to go.  We headed back to the house and began the morning chores and preparing the lelenga until it was time to go to the north end of the village for the ceremony.  Around ten, one of the relatives came and walked with us to thek ceremony.  Our kids hung on in a big hammock with lots of the other kids.  They had such a good time!  Katherine was quickly scooped up by Auntie Skita again, and we watched during the ceremony as she was given a garland of frangipanni flowers and doted upon.  She is the queen of the village!  Aaron and I sat on a bench by two woven mats.  

 

 

The district priest opened the ceremony with prayer.  Then, the three who were having their hair cut knelt down on a mat in front of us (I don't know if I will ever get used to being given the seat of honor).  The oldest sister of the man who died and one of the brothers had been selected by their father to grow their hair in mourning.  Grace (one of Sarah Kiko's sisters) chose to grow hers because her father (a former chief) had named the young man who died.  Three people with scissors came forward and cut the hair close to the head.  Then each person in mourning was given new, white clothes and white paint or paste was marked across their forehead and upper arms.  Each of the three were given a big bowl of gifts (including some local food and some "white man's food" according to the local chief) and a small bowl of gifts was additionally presented to Grace in honor of her father.  Tears flowed freely during the ceremony. 

 

When everything was finished, one of the chiefs spoke about the importance of passing customs down to younger generations and the symbolism of the ceremony.  The priest also spoke about how there was mourning after Jesus' death, and then a time of joy followed.  He encouraged the three to leave behind the mourning and enter the time of joy now.  We learned that this is only the first of several ceremonies in conjunction with the young man's death.  They will lay concrete over his grave soon, and in January another group of people with cut their hair.  The following August another ceremony will occur one year after the young man's death.  I hope we are in Marulaon for this one, too.

 

When we finally returned home, it was close to noon.  After a quick bite to eat, we tackled all of the scraping of the coconuts and obikola to prepare the lelenga.  I milked and cooked the coconut cream and sliced the bananas.  Felta brought by some leaves for the motu since we don't have our own trees yet (but we have some small ones growing in our yard now).  I carried everything down to Eileen's house where they were just beginning to scrape (they are a lot faster than we are!).  By four, we had finished and it was time to get ready for supper and church.

 

I know this post is long and rambling, but that's how our day felt!  Looking forward to a day of rest tomorrow.