'New Day' celebration on Solor Island

By Yacob J. Herin

LAMAOLE, Solor, East Nusa Tenggara (JP): A "new day" sets in every year between July 16 and July 18 for the people in Lewotana Ole village, some 15 kilometers south of Rita Ebang, capital of West Solor district, East Flores regency, East Nusa Tenggara province.

At that time they celebrate Wuu Hori (a new day). One day before the celebration, people take out their Wua (sacred objects with magic power), like krises, gold rings, gold chains, jewelry and precious stones.

Only certain people, like landlords, have Wua, which can only be viewed once in a year. The rare opportunity is never passed up by people who want to see and feel the magic power. They pay door-to-door visits to the houses of the owners of the sacred objects. During the visits some people carry cotton and rub it on the sacred objects. The cotton is then attached to the end of a bow or a javelin.

"People believe that with the cotton, they will succeed if they hunt with the weapon," said Kitong Keraf, 74, a landlord.

Landlords play an important role in the Lewotana Ole village. They are respected by people and are treated as public figures. The village has a population of about 1,500 who live in two hamlets, Lamaku and Lamaole.

People earn their living by nomad cultivation, fishing from the sea, sapping from palms to make sugar, and hunting. For women, after the harvest time they pick cotton, spin yarn, weave and plait cloth.

The village has a church and a grade school with 55 pupils and two part-time and two full-time teachers. The school was built on a self-supporting basis by local people in 1955.

The ceremony of the Wuu Hori celebration in Lewotana Ole village is held at a meeting place called nuba nama.

There are still two nuba nama in the village. In these places people hold meetings, traditional ceremonies and also settle any conflicts.

"All problems in the village must compulsorily be settled at the nuba nama," said Hitong Keraf.

In the "new day" ceremony, the landlords are obliged to read a mantra, asking the sun and the moon to bless them throughout the year with sufficient rain for an abundant harvest, said Hitong Keraf. The ceremony continues with a banquet.

On the second night a special meal is on the program. It is called Rengki (rice put in a basin), and consists of a bottle of Mokeh (distilled white wine) and a bowl of cooked coconut milk, a roasted cock put on the rice and a clove cigarette which is put in the cock's mouth.

Before dinner starts the landlord who leads the ceremony says a prayer: "Oh, moon and sun, please protect us." After the prayer the landlord takes a handful of rice and a piece of meat as food to give to the souls of the ancestors who have preceded them.

A few weeks after the Rengki dinner, people are ordered to get ready for opening new fields because normally the rainy season is about to arrive. The landlords must initiate the opening of new fields. The same takes place at the planting season in regions with rare animals like the komodo, the small yellow bird of paradise, the white cockatoo and the eagle.

On the first day of planting rice and corn in the landlord's fields, an animal slaughter ceremony is held, said Yohanes Kewuan, 65, a village elder.

A male goat is tied up together with a number of baskets of rice and corn plants which will be made "superior" seeds and sowed exactly in the middle of the field. The goat is killed to see its "heart veins", which is believed to indicate if there will be adequate rain or not in the planting season to come.

If the prediction indicates there will not be sufficient rain, the people must hold a ceremony to ask for more. The ceremony is held in a traditional house. An old woman is seated with crossed legs holding in her lap a water container called Kumbang. A number of young women fill it to the brim with water. While they are filling the container, the villagers are shouting that the rain has fallen. They believe that the sky above Lamaole village will be overcast and it will rain.

In the ceremony of opening new fields, the blood of the slaughtered goat is splashed on the seeds of corn and rice, and these are distributed to those present for planting. The goat is grilled and then eaten together.

In order to harvest rice and corn, a ceremony must also be held in the landlord's house by roasting young corn to be distributed to all the small children in the village. Only after the ceremony are the villagers free to cut the corn.

If a plant disease attacks the field, the landlord orders people to pick leaves and roots as a way to chase the disease, according to customs elder Hermina Hinggi Keban, 68.

The ingredients are then assembled and splashed with animal blood. Then they are distributed to all the inhabitants and attached to the end of a piece of bamboo or wood, and planted at the entrance of the village, on the rooftop of houses and in the four corners of the fields. Another part is pounded, mixed with water and splashed on all the rice and corn plants. It is believed that the disease will die or fly off leaving the plants and the fields.