Yesterday as it approached evening our neighbors introduced to us our first experience with a "real" Malagasy party! The music and dancing started around 6 pm and went well into the next morning, they finally gave it a rest at 730 this morning!It is the season of" The Turning of The Bones.
The people here believe that when one of their family members dies they don't really die, but have a different life, a more powerful one. They believe that their dead ancestors come to them in dreams and tell them that they are cold, or need a fresh set of clothes! So when a Malagasy person has a dream about that, they kill all their cows, and throw a big party! They take the dead body of their ancestors out of their tomb, clean the bones or flesh, and re-wrap them with clean cloth. This whole process takes a couple of days, and they dance around with the bones and celebrate. It kind of looks like a big parade as they march on the streets with the corpse, and play lots of music! Often times the Malagasy people will try to convince their dead ancestor to bless them in some way......either give them good health, make them wealthy, or protect them from harm. In order to do this they will try to take part of the flesh that remains on the corpse, or some of the powdery stuff that is in the cloth wrapped around the corpse, and they eat it! They also will take the teeth our of the corpse and place it in their mouth. Hope you all are still hanging in there as you read this:)
We have only been introduced to this by our neighbors, but tomorrow( on Kurtis's 30th Birthday) We will spend the day experiencing first hand the customs of the Turning of the Bones ceremony! I know that the smell of the tomb will be horrendous, and that the food that we will eat tomorrow will be interesting, but we are thankful for opportunities to be able to learn how the people here think and live their lives, so that we can better understand their needs and how to help these people!
Wow! You are getting deep into the culture! Ancestor worship is alive and well in Madagascar as it is on the mainland (and many other places in the world)!. Do take care that in your participation that you aren't showing a strong affiliation with their beliefs. Are there any local Christians who might give advise on this? You will have to tell us how it went. Bob
ReplyDeleteWow is right! I've never heard of such a thing. Oh the things you all will experience. I would probably loose a few pounds because I'd be a little afraid to eat anything. I love to see your heart for these people as you write about very strange things. God is using you! --Brook Gray--
ReplyDeleteWow, sounds a lot like the stuff I heard about from my family that were in Papua new guinea with new tribes. Praise God for your willingness to serve!
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