Fiji - Malakati Village Dancers
 

 

Featured Destination: FIJI

If you are lucky, a Meke can be arranged, which is a dancing ceremony traditionally performed in villages for important visitors.  For a Meke, villagers sing, accompanied by guitars, ukuleles and drums, while traditional dances are preformed in traditional clothing, including grass skirts for the men.  With a call in advance and a small fee, most villages will happily organize a Meke for you, for you to be honored as their most important visitors of the day.

 

Lovo Buffet - Fiji

And, for important visitors, or to celebrate important events and festivals, or even for every Sunday after church, (depending on the village) a Lovo is prepared, which is a huge feast baked on hot rocks in the sand.  For a small fee, villagers are happy to prepare a Lovo for you, and welcome you to Fiji in the traditional way.  At least 24 hours notice must be given, as the rocks must be well heated to cook the Lovo.  Most villages have a Lovo pit, in which the rocks will be heated with fires that burn for hours on top of the rocks.  Once heated, various meats, fish, and chicken are placed on the hot rocks in palm frond baskets.  On top of this layer of meats, are placed layers of vegetables including breadfruit, taro, sweet and white potatoes, pumpkin, spinach, and other greens, that may be flavored with coconut milk and other herbs and spices found in the islands.  And on top of all are placed giant banana leaves, then palm fronds, (in modern days then tarps to keep all sand out) and finally the lovo is capped with a layer of sand to create a natural oven where all is baked for many hours until the Lovo is "cracked" and opened for dinner.  Any Lovo baked food may be accompanied by fresh salads, fish cerviche, and other foods prepared in the Fijian way.  We especially liked the interior flesh of the whole pumpkin that had been filled with coconut milk and baked whole in the Lovo, a treat hard to re-create anywhere else!

And of course a Lovo always has music with traditional songs, guitars, ukuleles and drums around the never empty Kava bowl, and impromptu dancing is always a possibility.

Besides these traditional village events unique to Fiji, when you visit, the ladies of the village are always happy to put out a "Shell Market", where mats magically appear, and each lady will display their goods for purchase. These goods range from beautiful shells that have been found and polished, to shell jewelry, to coconut Kava cups, wood carvings and the local hand painted pieces of Tapa cloth. 

Village Fijians are deeply religious and invite you to attend their village church services, which occur 4 or 5 days of each week, depending on the village.  Methodist Missionaries first came to Fiji in the 1880's and Christian religions quickly spread through the nation, ending the tradition of Cannibalism, with the last Cannibalistic event occurring as recently at 1884. Modern visitors can now attend a village church service, rather than be an attendee of the village pot!