EVENT

EVENT :

WULA PODU - Holy month for Marapu.
From full moon of October to full moon of November there are many prohibitions; if infringed ancestor spirits will strongly punish the infringer. At the end of Wula podu month, many ceremonies take place:

°Topeng:
In several villages of Lamboya, Patiala, Loli drums are beating all night long and the day after occurs the ceremony. Marapu rituals are performed by a rato, women dance and a kind of sorcerer wearing a mask amuse or frighten the audience.

°Magowo:
A big crowd gather at the delta of a river (Lamboya) for Marapu rituals and collective
traditional fishing.

°Pajura:
ritual boxing for men. It seems like they get up to all that was forbidden during the holy period!
During this period, rato of Sodan village decide of the date for Pasola Lamboya.

PASOLA:
Pasola is the name of a war game tournament played by two groups of Sumbanese men (ones performing for coastal villages, others for inland villages). Entrants must be brave and skilled enough to provoke opponents flinging wooden spears.
Pasola is a traditional ceremony of the Sumbanese held in the way of uniquely and sympethically traditional norms, every year in February and March and has become the focus of attention of the people since it is a part of the sacred homage to the Marapu.
The ceremony occurs during February in Lamboya and Kodi and during March in WanuKaKa and Gaura. The main activity starts several days after the full-moon and rituals take place before Pasola, mostly the night before Pasola coinciding with the yearly arrival to the shore of strange and multicolored sea worms-nyale. The precise date of the event decided by the Rato during the Wula Podu.
So the event celebrate the arrival of nyale, a goddess believed to be the symbol of divinity and fertility blessing on plants and cattle. Colorful horsemen riding decorated horses give rise to this unique tournament: the dashing horsemen gallop around the area challenging their opponents to spearthrowing contests. Government regulation now require the use of blunt spears but injury and death are accepted as possible consequences of playing the game and there is not any prosecution. The athmosphere in this arena grows increasily excited and cries and screams of the public heighten the feeling of keen competition.

YAWU:
Yawu is ritual ceremony that take place at night to get help from the ancestors.
Women dance around a fire in the middle of graveyard, drums beat, and the mysterious dialogue with ancestors begin :” Tahuli” speaks as advocate for humans, ancestors speak through the voice of “Dodo”, all the dialogue is in a spiritual language(Bahasa adat) .
When somebody is ill, they think ancestors are angry with this person. So they want to know why and they ask to ancestors what to do to calm down the wrath of Marapu - sometimes it works! Also when they want to built a new traditional house, Humans have to ask for agreement to Marapu.