SELAMAT HARI GAWAI~~

Been procrastinating a lot since holiday mood still hanging around...

Wanna share with you all what I did when I was back in Sarikei.

First Sunday at Sarikei (13/5/07), I helped Nanas and Eric with Mother's Day thingy at the church (as mentioned in the earlier post).

Second Sunday (20/5/07), St Anthony Church Sarikei held an in-advance Gawai celebration at the Jubilee Hall after 9.30am Iban mass.

Nanas and I were invited by Dolly to join the celebration.

These are the bunch of Iban youths who are making the church lively. I only know 2 guys from the picture above. The guy in black long sleeves is Luke, and the one behind him is Nicodamus. The rest, I couldn't manage to get to know them cause they were busy preparing themselves before the celebration starts.

And this leng lui here is Dolly. She has the gift of prophecy! Don't play play with her.

Well, as you can see, she is dressing in her Iban costume while holding a bottle of Tuak (wine made from rice). Her job was to pour a glass of tuak for our parish priest and the other organising committees as a sign of welcome and the celebration officially starts after that.

These are the instruments involved in the celebration. They are really helpful in providing the long house ambience. Felt like "ngajat-ing" when they played the instruments.

And when the instruments started working, the youths started "ngajat-ing". From the entrance of the Jubilee Hall, they danced into the main hall followed by Father David Lau behind.

Dancing with concentration and passion.

Father David drinking Tuak handed over by Dolly.

This tree is called Ranyai Gawai where the youths danced around the tree for like 5 minutes.

Side view of Ranyai Gawai. The tree is full of food and fruits. I think this tree is like a sign of prosperity? Or maybe a sign of good harvest every year? Not very sure, forgot to ask Dolly. Hehe