Fiji Life: Day 5 - The Kava Ceremony

Bula! Drinking Buddies!

Today we round out the busiest day of the trip with the Kava Ceremony. First, a little background on this long-held Fijian tradition.

Kava, known in Fiji as Yaqona, is Fiji's national drink. Traditionally, it was used only in important ceremonies. Nowadays, it is a social beverage. There is a strict protocol associated with yaqona drinking. One should clap once, clasping the hands, take the cup, and drink the yaqona in a single draft before returning the cup to the bearer. ~ excerpt from Wikipedia

In our ceremony we went old-school. Coconut Man (who conducted virtually every non-diving activity at the resort) had laid out the ground rules a couple days earlier during the palm frond weaving and coconut demonstration.

He brought the chief rope made of coconut husk strands and 4 cowrie shells tied to the end. The night of the Kava Ceremony, at dinner, he would choose the guest who would be chief and preside over the ceremony. Relax...and go, "awwww", I did NOT get picked as the chief. In fact I never even saw the actual selection for some reason. In fact, even though our group dominated the resort as to quantity (our 30 to about 10 for the Others) NO ONE in our group was chosen. The Orange-Haired man from the others was chosen as chief AND one other Other, Wimpy Droopy Man, was chosen as the spokeman. If this had been Lord Of The Flies there would have been a coup and a killing right then. Not bitter...not. bitter.

Dinner is over and the ceremony is about to start. The chief sits in front of the Kava bowl and the Spokesman sits to his left. The rope with cowrie shells points to the chief. Coconut man weaves the tale of the Kava ceremony history while another staff member from the Village places the ground kava root into a muslin cloth. The water is poured into the bowl and the sack of root powder is drug through the water and squeezed repeatedly to release the kava into the water. The muslin, of course, acts as a filter to prevent the sediment from ruining the party.

Did I mention the chief does not speak to anyone and no one speaks to the chief? All requests go through the Spokesman (who can speak to the chief). Once the ceremony is officially started, the chief drinks first. The clapping ritual that follows is a sign of respect. I hope I have it right.

There is one clap by all before the chief's bowl is filled. The chief then drinks and when finished, everyone at the ceremony claps three times. These are not claps like cheering on your team, these are cupped-hand claps that have a deep timbre to them. Not a high-pitched clap used for killing mosquitoes.

After the chief has finished and the clapping is done, each person in succession must clap once, receive the bowl of kava (half of a coconut shell full) drink it down and then only that person claps three times. The bowl is refilled and process is repeated until the entire group has had their bowl. We had enough people that two half-shells were used in opposite directions to speed up the serving.

Here are the visuals...(I apologize in advancefor the quality, light was very low and flash seemed to ruin the mood)

You can see the rope and shells are pointing toward our Ginger Chief on the left...pfffst

The beginning of the kava mixture. I really wanted one of those giant kava bowls.

My wife in the center of the picture staring intently from the second row.

The Coconut Man (in pink) recalling the history behind kava. Ginger Chief with male pattern balding issues and Wimpy Droopy Spokesman (orange shirt) to his left.

The kava is about ready and the story is about ending...

That's right...bareback, no latex baby!

Ginger Chief and Wimpy Droopy Spokesman are ready to lead us in kava drinking.

Whoa! Kava effects...not really just a bad picture, but effective, eh?

Ginger Chief doing the nasty and drinkin' that muddy water...

Wimpy Droopy Spokesman and his dainty drinking...it got worse

My wife throwing back a bowl like no tomorrow! Go, honey!

Travel Monkey scoring chicks at the Kava Ceremony...sweet!

Arkansas Girl goes for the tsunami bowl

And then there were few. When ever someone wanted to leave the ceremony, they had to ask the Spokesman for permission. Then he ended up leaving before it was over...Wimpy Bastard.

The End. Three rounds and we were done. I personally would have continued.

You had your choice of bowl and serving size. Wimpy Droopy Spokesman kept asking for "teaspoon" because of the shark dive the next morning. Pahlease! All the divers were going on the shark dive. Myself and few others hit the tsunami bowls. In between teaspoon and tsunami, your choice was "low tide" or "high tide".

The numbing sensation of the mouth, lips, and tongue was the most physical trait that came out of the ceremony. We were told that when they drink in the villages it is between 20 and 30 bowls at a sitting! I cannot say for sure what you feel after that. However I did buy five bags of Kava to take home (my bowl is a salad bowl from Walmart!) One night I may find out.

I can say that I went back to the bure and was very intent on editing and arranging our pictures on the computer. Then I slept like a baby.

Vinaka, friends...