Parties That You Will Never Remember…
Ahoy Crew and Yokwe!
I attended a Marshallese style “housewarming” or” house dedication party” for my friend Bwiji Aliven and his wife here in Majuro recently. It was a wonderful affair. Bwiji and his wife are moving into a very nice newly constructed dwelling and preparations for the celebration took friends and family several days to complete. Mountains of food were prepared for the guests and included a whole turtle cooked in the ground, two whole pigs, a whole Marlin served sashimi style, several Yellowfin Tuna prepared in several ways, lots of reef fish, boiled octopus in coconut milk, curried giant clams and huge quantities of BBQ chicken and ribs. This was all set out with barrels of rice, salad and breadfruit and accompanied by many cases of beer and soft drinks. A band played well into the early morning hours. Hundreds of guests participated and a fine time was had by all.
I have no idea how Chuck's friend's house is constructed; traditional, modern or somewhere in between, as this time he sent along no photos. But I found this photo of a house in a google search and decided I'll work on the shack when I get home...I want a real porch!
Japanese era weatherboard house on Bouj, Ailinglaplap Atoll
(Photograph © 1989-2001 Dirk HR Spennemann)
Earlier in the day, about 10 AM and prior to the festivities, a small group of friends and family gathered in the new house with the priest who blessed the house. He prayed and sprinkled Holy Water all around. He started at the front porch and sprinkled the water throughout the house. As he was wetting down the bedrooms the front door slammed shut. Everyone was very pleased because obviously a demon-spirit had been chased out of the house by the Holy Water and it had slammed the door shut behind itself! It was a huge success!!
This was a party that will be remembered by all. However there are two very important parties that are staged during the course of one’s Marshallese life that are never remembered by the guest of honor.
The very first party to be held for a Marshallese is the keeman (pronounced Kay-Min). This occurs when a child reaches one year old. The infant mortality rate used to be very high here and most children did not reach the milestone of one year old. Those that did had a pretty good chance of further survival and so a big party was staged for them. Another limiting factor to the life of an infant (in the old days) was infanticide. That’s right. After a woman had 3 children infanticide was practiced as a means of population control. The reason being that these islands are very small and can provide food for only so many people. Today, in modern times, infanticide is no longer practiced and families with less than 5 or 6 children are rare. I was sitting around “talking story” with a 3 elderly gentlemen the other day and one of them remarked “Chuck, between the 3 of us we have over 125 children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. It’s very sad that you have no children. You must make some so that they can take care of you when you become too old to take care of yourself!”
The keeman is still considered a very important milestone in the life of a Marshallese person and no expense is spared to throw the most lavish party possible. Parents will frequently go deeply into debt to provide for this event.
The other party held in the life of a Marshallese person that will never be remembered by the guest of honor is the funeral. Typically it is a 3 day event and again it is a most lavish affair that often puts the family deeply in debt.
Personally I do not get too excited by the keemans. Heck, I don’t even like kids! Horrible little monsters, most of them! And funerals have never been high on my list either. But this housewarming of Bwiji’s was really a spectacular and wonderful affair! Congratulations Bwiji!!
That’s all for now, Crew…
Cheers from the edge of the world!
Chuck
Have a traditional Thursday. Do something tangible.
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