May

May is holiday time in Tonga. While Tonga shares Mother's Day with the rest of the world on the second Sunday of the month, this special day is bracketed in Tonga by Children’s Day the Sunday before and Father’s Day the Sunday after. Each holiday has its own distinct flair and Tongan flavor attached to it, but all three days are inevitably associated with the church, and in the case of this post, the Wesleyan Church.

Every child, an ambiguous age bracket ranging from babies to men and women in their late 20’s and early 30’s who are still unmarried, wears all white to church on Children’s Day. The children are dressed in their cleanest white attire, adorn in clothing that it only worn on a few special days. The service works pretty much the same as any other, except every hymn is read by the children – amid much crying and many photos – and the youth are spotlighted more than normal in the church choir. Last year the village held a large feast in honor of the children, but this year everyone is trying to save their money for the Wesleyan Conference in June, so families simply retreated to their houses for a better than average Sunday meal. On a special note, one of the families I was closest with invited me to join in their family photos after church, which was incredibly moving for me.

Children’s Day is followed by Mother’s Day, perhaps the most important holiday of the month. While no white is worn on this day, the mom’s replace the children as the hymn readers and each mom is presented with flowers from their children and neighbors. Though this did not happen at my church, many villages hold a several hours long service to allow every mom the opportunity to make a thank you speech in front of the entire village with enough crying to put the children’s performance from the week before to shame. The market in town is also never busier than the Saturday before Mother’s Day, as literally the entire population of Vava’u comes in to buy food, flowers, and mother’s day cakes.

After church, I was invited to eat with my town officer, Havea, as I often am. This time however his entire family, children and grandchildren, ate with us. The food was sensational as we ate lamb lu (by far my favorite kind), pork lu (a rare treat), roasted pig, ota ika (raw fish), and much more. I had also eaten with Havea after Children’s day when we had a more simple meal of fish and root crops, and he joked that the children ate much better on mother’s day than they do for their own holiday. On a similar note, I asked my neighbor Fifita, a mother of 3, how her Mother’s Day meal was, and she responded, “Good. The food is always good, as I’m always the one doing the cooking,” and then let loose one of those great Tongan laughs. Incidentally, I have a feeling all the moms reading this post are grimly nodding their heads in agreement with Fifita.

Last and actually least comes Father’s day. For some unknown reason, Father’s Day is kind of a faka’ofa (sad/pathetic) holiday in Tonga. Maybe Tongans are simply tired after celebrating two holidays the weeks before, but Father’s Day simply isn’t a big deal here in Tonga. Church is the exact same as always, and the fathers’ don’t really have any special role in the service. The afternoon meal is not any larger than usual and the market the day before is busier than normal but nowhere close to the craziness that comes before Mother’s Day. Sorry to let all the fathers reading this post down.

Thanks for reading. I hope everyone enjoyed their Memorial Day weekends. Please enjoy more photos taken from my aunt on her visit.

Playing games with Class 5

Dorothy happily posing for Aunt Ruth

Reading with Class 3 and 4

Last weekend, a few of us went out to Ryan and Abby's village for a night to hang out and swim in the only fresh water lake in Vava'u. It was an amazing weekend. Here the male volunteers of Vava'u are posing in the manliest manner we could think of. (From Left: Jeff, Joey, and Ryan). Thanks to Mandy Pederson for this photo and the following one.

In Tu'anuku with Jeff and Mandy