A New Year in Farafangana

My choir just celebrated New Year’s on Saturday, so it’s not too late to write a blog post about New Year’s, right? Seriously though, I am so sorry for the looooooong break between blog posts. I don’t really have a good excuse to give, but I am going to try to do better during this second half of my YAGM year!

New Year’s (taom-baovao in Malagasy, but most people refer to it in the French: “bonne année”) was a pretty big deal in my community. The celebrations last much longer than just New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day... as a testament, the fact that my choir just celebrated on March 3^rd and it was totally normal.

Like the other holidays I have spent in Madagascar so far, New Year’s Eve and Day were pretty different than the traditions I am used to in the US. My New Year’s Eve was not spent watching Dick Clark/Ryan Seacrest/whoever’s Rockin’ New Year’s Eve. In fact, it was spent in church! Starting at 10pm (but actually not until 10:30 when the Pastor showed up), there was a worship service. After the brief service, there was a variety show of sorts, where people came up and sang or danced or did standup comedy until midnight.

While we were waiting for the service to begin, I was chatting with my friend Viviane and her husband about New Year’s traditions. Viviane’s husband asked me what we usually do in America for New Year’s, so I proceeded to try and talk about what a typical New Year’s Eve looks like. I tried to explain about watching a huge glass ball move down a pole, and watching various artists do performances, and watching Fergie talk to Ryan Seacrest when it’s already the new year on the east coast but the west coast is still stuck in the past. I tried to explain the tradition of eating greens and pinto beans on New Year’s Day (for money or luck or something?)… And all of it just sounds so strange! Why a giant ball? Why do we kiss people when the clock strikes 12? Why is the big event in New York where it is freezing?? Why does that lady always end up doing snow angels in the confetti left over on the street after all the people have gone home? WHY do we do all these things and HOW do you explain that to someone who has never seen it before??

Quickly, realizing how odd everything sounded, questioning my own New Year's traditions in the US, and having trouble talking about all of that in my limited Malagasy, I changed the subject and asked Viviane’s husband what they usually do for New Year’s! His response was much less complicated than mine. He said: “We do this! We come to church. We end the old year in the same way we start the new year – in prayer.”

“Oh, okay,” I thought. While us Americans are going crazy over a giant, sparkly ball, my Malagasy community (8 hours before) rings in the new year with God in their hearts and on their minds. And sure enough, when the clock struck 12 (aka: the woman DJ-ing the variety show checked her phone and declared that it was midnight), there was no kissing or wild screaming of “HAPPY NEW YEARS!” Many people remained in their seats, praying.

Afterwards, we began the “fiarahabana” – a New Year’s greeting of 3 kisses on the check (left, right, left) and the saying “Arahabaina tratry ny taona.” As soon as you had greeted everyone, and I mean, EVERYONE, you were free to go home. After taking some New Year’s pictures, some of my friends from choir walked me back to SeJaFa. Little did I know, the party was still rockin’ and rollin’ at the school where I live! As soon as someone let me in the gate, they invited me into the refectory (dining hall) where a lot of the staff, and the students who didn’t go home for Christmas break, were still dancing, snacking, and having a great time! So I hung out and danced - a tradition that is a little more consistent with what I am used to, even though the dancing is not the same at all - until 3:30 in the morning.

Later that morning, I woke up at 6:30 to go to breakfast before I went to New Year’s Day church. (Yes, there was a church service that began at 8am on New Year's Day.) After church, I went home and fell very asleep, and was awoken by Ramatoa calling me to tell me it was time for lunch! Lunch was a feast, and after lunch, my host brother took me to the beach – a tradition that also felt familiar to me, since my family usually spends New Year’s Eve at the beach!

When New Year’s Day was over, the celebrations didn’t stop. I celebrated New Year’s with the teachers at the primary school on the first Friday in February, and I just celebrated New Year’s with my choir. An important part of the culture in my community is to give everyone a New Year’s greeting when you see them for the first time in the new year. So occasionally, even now, I’ll hear someone say “oh, I haven’t seen you yet??” and then proceed to do the three kisses New Year’s greeting. It is still the new year, after all!

One big New Year’s tradition in Farafangana (it may be a tradition in the whole country, but I can’t say for sure since I’ve only spent New Year’s in Farafangana) is to bring a goose to important people in your community. One of my favorite things about the language surrounding this practice is that people of importance are referred to as “ray aman-dreny” – the Malagasy phrase for “parents.” So with the teachers at SeJaFa, and again with the teachers at the primary school, I went and visited one set of community "ray aman-dreny" (who also happen to be my actual host parents, since my host dad is the synod president). These visits open with prayer by the visiting party, a speech is made by a member of the visiting party, and the goose is presented. Then the “parents” pray, make a speech, give candy to the visiting party, and then the whole thing ends with another prayer or a hymn. The primary school teachers and I also visited the head pastor of our church (my site supervisor), Pastor Frement, and his wife, to give a goose. During my choir’s celebration of New Year's on Saturday, we gave a goose to “ray aman-dreny chorale” – the President of AKRIFA and his wife. So many geese! So many parents!

I really like the New Year’s traditions I experienced this year in Farafangana. Honoring God first at church, and then honoring leaders in your community next, all while celebrating New Year’s with the smaller communities that are important to you, was, for me, a life-giving way to ring in the New Year.

My choir had a picnic lunch at CoCo Beach to celebrate the New Year!
There were games, dancing, soccer, and fellowship all afternoon.

Another shot of the picnickers.

This is a picture of the goose-giving ceremony down at the beach. The man with the microphone, wearing the white tank top, is the president of AKRIFA. He is making his speech before praying the final prayer.

Some of my choir friends and I down at the beach!