We celebrated Christmas in our village on Christmas Eve by attending mass with the Chuukese community. We had a delicious dinner and after mass sang Christmas carols in our apartment. On Christmas day we woke up early to open the small presents we got one another. My community had a $1 Christmas gift exchange; and we opened presents sent from our families. Thanks Mom! We then attended English-language mass with the Xavier community of JVs. I sang with the choir that Marcos directs, which provides music for all the English masses. Following mass we all headed up to Xavier for lunch, a very muddy/barefoot soccer game, and dinner with the community there. Christmas wasn’t the same as being with my family at home, but I very much enjoyed the opportunity to celebrate my first island Christmas.
Chuukese New Year was probably the most unique holiday I have observed in Chuuk in my 5 months here. Basically, the idea is that after midnight everyone makes as much noise as possible for the next 24 hours at least. The JVs spent New Years in the adjacent village dancing to the band Marcos plays in. When we drove home at 2am we passed loads of people out on the street drumming on any piece of available metal or banging on pots. We headed to the roof of our building to participate and later realized that our percussion skills are not as advanced as the majority of Chuukese people. I was awakened at dawn the next morning to parades of people outside my window banging on things and yelling, “happy new year everyone,” in Chuukese. The noise continued to accost me from my window all day long. On New Years Day evening I was out on the road and invited to join a group of maybe 20 people carrying a sheet of tin roofing and pots to ring in the New Year. Everyone was out on the road- old and young, whole families together. It was a very noisy New Year and a completely different way of celebrating than anything I have experienced.
Kinamwe,
Caitlin
2 comments:
It sounds much more interesting than my new years. I babysat and the children were banging pots and pans making all the noise. Hope you are safe and enjoying the teaching a little bit more. Look out for a letter I swear it is on its way.
Hello there or should I say, RANANNIM.
I MUST SAY I DID ENJOYED READING YOUR POST. AT TIMES IT MAKES ME LAUGH SO HARD IT BRING TEARS TO MY EYES. I AM A NATIVE OF CHUUK. I'VE BEEN LIVING IN CALIFORNIA SINCE 1980. I HAVE NOT LEFT CALIFORNIA EVER SINCE. DO YOU BLAME ME? SOMEDAY, I WILL COME HOME TO VISIT WHEN THE TIME IS RIGHT. EVERYTHING YOU POST IS THE TRUTH. CHUUK HAS NOT CHANGE IN A WAY OF ED. MARIANO WAS MY CLASSMATE. WE GRADUATED FROM ST.CECILIA SCHOOL. HE WENT XAVIER HIGH, AND I WENT TO TRUK HIGH. I HOPE HE'S ALRIGHT. ANYWAY, I APPRECIATE YOUR POST AND PLEASE KEEP EM COMING. SANSER MEITOU, LBCC
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