Celebrating the bounties of hard work in hand with nature

WHEN all is safely gathered in, the festivals begin.

The annual rice harvest festivals are held in most Southeast Asian countries but nowhere better celebrated than in Sabah and Sarawak at the end of May and beginning of June. Likewise, in Southern France, in the lowland rice growing area of the Camargue, in Provence, the harvest is celebrated in September. In all three locations, the rice harvest festival represents the yearly toil of the farmers to provide a staple food source.

Over the years, I have been fortunate enough to attend the Kaamatan festival, the Gawai Dayak, and the ‘Feria du Riz’ – Festival of Rice.

All these harvest festivals are steeped in cultural traditions and folklore with the local folk dressed in traditional costumes and celebrating with tuak, tapai, or red wine! It is the time to reflect upon the relationship of the Creator or the Gods with man as seen in the fruits of human labour. Simply it is thanksgiving time.

Kaamatan

Kaamatan is characterised by cultural performances, merry-making and traditional sports competitions. The highlight of this festival is the selection and parade of the Unduk Ngadau or harvest festival queen.

This festival hinges around a time when the harvest failed and a pagan god, Kinoingan, sacrificed his only daughter, Huminodun, and tore her body into shreds to scatter over the fields.

From her remains, the first rice plants grew. The rice was given the spirit name Bambazon, which people saw as the transformed product of Huminodun’s body.

The festival period is divided into many parts with Bobohizans and their incantations playing a prominent role in many.

In short, the people plead for the cooperation of the rice spirits to allow them an uninterrupted (by rain or rats) harvest. The rice spirits are blessed and asked to return to the paddy fields to keep them safe for next year’s harvest. The spirits are also requested to keep an eye on the granaries to protect the rice from rat invasions and mildew.

The Magavau ritual is performed on the first full moon after harvesting has finished, when food is offered to the rice spirit Bambazon. Finally, the Humabot ceremony – the election of the harvest queen – followed by celebrations sees the festival draw to a close for another year.

Gawai Dayak

It was in 1964 that this harvest festival celebration by Dayak communities in Sarawak was registered as a public holiday. The procedures associated with this festival predate the arrival of Christianity, when the harvest homecoming was celebrated through animistic and pagan rituals that still traditionally continue today.

Prior to the start of Gawai, all longhouses are ‘spring cleaned’ and traditional delicacies cooked and preserved. On Gawai Eve, decorated mats are laid out along longhouse ruais.

That evening, a ceremony is held to cast away the spirits of greed followed by a miring or ritual offering ceremony to the deities. The following events are too numerous to mention but suffice to say the whole longhouse eventually sits down for the festival dinner.

Just before midnight, the spirits are welcomed by a procession and a beauty pageant is held to elect the annual Kumang and Keling (Gawai King and Queen).

As the clock strikes midnight, the longhouse chief toasts longevity and the start of a new rice season. Traditional dancing and local poems are sung, which echo into the early hours fuelled by tuak.

Later that day, traditional games of the blowpipe, arm-wrestling, and football contests are held. Traditionally, on June 1, an open house is declared and this continues until the end of the month.

Feria du Riz

After the annual, machine-intensive planting and harvesting of rice has finished in the delta lands of the River Rhone, the festival of celebration begins.

The city of Arles and ‘capital’ of the Camargue, sees a vast increase in its local population mixed with tourists to witness the events.

Dressed in traditional local costumes the Arlesian inhabitants paint a multi-coloured picture. During the three days of this festival, roving troubadours in the form of small bands (penas) and choirs roam the streets, singing local songs in dialect until the late evening.

Market stalls are set up, selling locally produced cheese, wines, meats, honey, jams, and fresh lavender bunches.

Arles is a World Heritage Site owing to its long history, dating back to its founding by the Romans in 123 BC and graced with a well preserved Roman amphitheatre and arena as well as Emperor Constantine’s thermal baths.

During the Feria, bull running (encierros) occurs along its streets with ‘Gardians’ – cowboys/ranchers, on their white horses, controlling the bulls with local youths following to try to touch the tails of the stampeding Camargue black bulls.

Each day of the festival and in the Arena, the ‘Courses Camargues’ unwinds with brave young men (aspiring matadors) trying to take tassels or tags off a bull’s horns without injury to themselves or the bull.

The ‘Corrida’ or bull fight, in the Roman Arena, is a spectacular occasion with a knowledgeable local crowd applauding or booing the relative skills of the matadors.

I was once anti-bullfighting, but having seen many matadors despatch a bull quickly with the correct thrust of their sword blade, I have changed my mind.

Actually, a bullfight is an artistic event, as so well described by the late author Ernest Hemmingway.

I shall be there this September to soak up the Feria du Riz, in much the same way that my Malaysian friends have allowed me over the years, to be included for Gawai Dayak and Kaamatan.

As we celebrate these harvest festivals, wherever we are in the world, we should, whatever our beliefs, offer a prayer to the creator for the blood, sweat and tears that our farmers have experienced in bringing the harvest home with nature’s blessings.

We should also pray for those in other countries who, through, war, pestilence and climate change, have no harvest this year nor in recent years. Do enjoy your Kaamatan or Gawai Dayak holiday.