Macgregor: Calendar

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Rotuman Custom as told to Gordon Macgregor in 1932
from notes archived at Bishop Museum, Honolulu, Hawai'i

Calendar

Category:

Calendar(1)

Topic:

Months

Consultant:

C. Jacobson

Macgregor's Notes

Comments

1 year = 6 months: tafi

1. Kas fe
2. Hosag-hau = flowering of the Bau (Fij.) trees
3. Afapuga
4. Alipapa
5. Haue ta = Island off Noatau
6. Noa'tauta = Noatau

Faut e mua - winter, beginning with S.E. trades about April.
Faut e fa'u - summer, beginning with N. wind about November.

Holidays

Noatau
Haua
Mosianghau
Afupuga - tabus on noise all month
Oipapa

These are the months of the sau's reign. The sau was said to live in six places during his reign.

Every month has a holiday = kato'aga. They had a ri hapa near the shore on the marä'e, where the sau sat for a holiday of songs and dances. kato'aga = one day. The holiday rotated through the six districts and all the people of the island gathered at the marä'e of the district in which its kato'aga was celebrated.