Today is a Fete!

At home in a holiday garb!

- What is the biggest holiday of the year, which is also proceeded by frenzied shopping and where everyone gets a gift?
- At what holiday do kids get dressed up and go door to door collecting candy?

Now an American mind will answer these questions with two different holidays. But on the islands they are wrapped into one happy holiday (or fete), the big celebration at the end of the month of fasting! In other places in the world, this isn’t the most important holiday but for islanders it takes the cake.

On the streets of our neighborhood

After a month of fasting during the day, islanders start the day early. The electricity came on at 5:30am so that every neighborhood’s loudspeakers could blast out the call to prayer and extended chanting nice and loud. As the island woke up, men in their traditional robe, hat and sports jacket started out. Once prayers were done, the men and kids hit the streets. They offer everyone a handshake , followed by the traditional greetings. House to house they go where the women are waiting with candies, cakes and treats.

Everyone is dressed in new clothes (the traditional holiday gift). So everyone from little baby to old grandparents have a clean, crisp look to them that comes with a brand-new outfit.

The rush at our house was from 7:30am-10am, with new constant visitors. We went through most of the case of sodas we bought, all 4 bags of candy, most of the cake and most of the double batch of cookies I made.

With some neighbors

We had a normal holiday assortment of visitors. There were the friends and neighbors we know well. The neighborhood kids that we recognize but don’t know well. The kids we don’t recognize at all. A few token crazy guys. Occasionally there was a father with his children.  But mostly the visitors were groups of kids or young men. Some were very respectful, greeting with sincerity, only taking one candy or treat and never taking something unless it is offered. Others came with greedy eyes- never looking you in the face but staring at the treats. One group of boys quickly grabbed every kind of treat and sodas (which were reserved for adults) even as I reprimanded them not to.  After that the sodas went on a far table and I was quick to greet the bigger packs of kids before they got to the coffee table laden with goodies. By the end of the morning, we didn’t recognize any of the kids and they came with plastic bags full of accumulated candies.

Our supplies pretty decimated, I closed up the front of our house a little. Closed enough so random kids would stop coming, but not closed enough that a friend wouldn’t come. Now our kids were back showing off their pockets full of treats, dirty spots on their nice new outfits, faces and hands sticky, begging to be allowed to eat more sugary goodness.

“Mommy, Daddy, can I have another one?”
What can we say, it’s a holiday! “Okay, you can have another.”

Showing off some of their treats

PRAYERS ANSWERED
We have had a great time having Tom’s sister and her beau here with us. We are very thankful that all their travels went smoothly. We are also thankful that he brought his nice camera and has been able to capture some of the exciting moments of this week. The month of fasting is over! We continued to have good opportunities for sharing throughout. We had extended times of prayer this week that went well. We were all invited by an island sister to a big feast- it was a wonderful time of fellowship.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Many seeds were planted during the month of fasting, pray that they would grow well. Tom has started meeting with two new island acquaintances, pray that their times of study would continue and be fruitful. The unhealed part of Avu’s burn gets smaller every time we see it, but he rips off the bandages any chance he gets so it hasn’t been staying clean. Keep praying for its healing. Fasting is over, so wedding season is going to begin. We have already been invited to several. Pray that attending these wedding events would help deepen our relationships with islanders. Pray for this final week with our guests!