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Category:

Marriage

Topic:

Rituals(1)

Consultant:

Tipo

When the family of a boy asks the parents of a girl whom they wish to be their son's wife, they call at the house and make a present of kava before making their request. Later when the arrangement has been completed, the couple go to the chief and ask his permission to wed (this is at least the present day custom).

When the two families have agreed to the marriage, the mothers separately call all the relatives to a family meeting. This is known as the tauna'i ne su. At this meeting the mother apportions the duties and gifts that each one is to bring. These are all presented to the bride's family.

The wedding followed when the gifts and food were complete, but not at any specified time after the engagement, as today they are required to wait 21 days by law.

At the wedding there is first a kava ceremony at which the mafua, the nurse of the bride, presides. She sits beside the bride and calls the kava for the chiefs and then the couple. A nurse is known as a mapiga = grandmother though she may be of no relation. At the wedding there is another mafua at the kitchen and he or she looks after the distribution and preparing of all the food and feasts.

The sigoa, or person after whom the bride was named, is presented with several white mats. She cuts the boy's hair in the ceremony, while the boy's sigoa cuts the virginal locks of the girl. These two receive the white mats that are presented to the couple from the sigoa, one sigoa receives the other's white mat and vice versa.

Category:

Marriage

Topic:

Rituals(2)

Consultant:

C. Jacobsen

A marriage ceremony first began by taking the bride on a litter with her mats to the home of the groom. He, too, was then set on the litter and the two of them were taken down to the sea and their feet were dipped into the water. Then they were taken back to the house and put on a bed at one end. At the other end sat all the family of the man. A tapa siapo (screen) hid the couple from the rest of the household.

An old woman of the groom's people would come behind the screen, and with a handkerchief wound around her fingers, would take the virginity of the girl. The handkerchief was tossed over the siapo, and if there was blood on it, the people all went out of the house with great shouts and cheers. It was a matter of great boasting among parents to say that their daughter was a virgin, and a matter of great shame if she did not have the sign on her wedding day.

When the couple were at the beach, the groom and several (8-9) of his relations were cut on the head by one of the relations of the girl with a stone axe. This is said to be a compensation for the bleeding that the groom was to cause the girl.

The first two or three days of the marriage feast were held at the bride's home. After the first day, the man's relations would all go home and prepare food. Then the bride's family would announce that they were sending the couple to his family, and on the appointed afternoon they would come over with all her people bringing the white mats. Then a big feast would take place for a night and a day at the groom's house. Her people would then return and in two or three days the couple would follow and go to her home.

Now it was for the groom's people to gather a great supply of fish or else many baskets of yam and taro and without announcement to descend on the couple at the bride's home. Again there was great feasting, and afterwards the visitors returned to their home.

Not long after, the couple would make a second visit at the home of the man, and within a few days a reciprocal surprise visit would come from the bride's people with the accompanying feast. Everyone of the relatives of the man would bring whatever food was on hand to the groom's house, and the feast was prepared for the visitors. When the visitors had eaten and left, the couple were free to do as they chose. Usually they returned to live more or less permanently at her home. She in fact seemed to have more to say about the matter and if she liked the husband's home better they would stay there.

The usual custom was to stay with the family of the girl. If their family was too large, the old father and mother would ask their children to build them a small house to which they would return. In any case the girl went to her home for her first child.

Category:

Marriage

Topic:

Rituals(3)

Consultant:

Fr.
Soubreyan

When a marriage is proposed in a family all the relatives have family meetings, and the presents of foods and mats are allotted to the members. There is always the attempt on the part of those coming to a wedding to put on as great a show as possible.

On the day of the wedding these presents are brought and laid before the couple. Chiefs are given a certain number of mats.

The bride's family takes charge of all the presents which have been given from families on both sides. The bride's family runs everything and disposes of the mats as they see fit. First they redistribute gifts among their own people according to the gifts that have been given, and what is left over is handed over to the bridegroom's family for distribution. In the end the couple is left with one mat on which they sleep.

The wedding lasts for five days during which there is continual feasting. The couple sit in the center of the group and eat with every party that comes up with a gift. They must continue eating night and day with everyone. They may sleep together on a mat, but in public.

On the first day the ceremony begins, in which the girl and boy go down to the beach and bathe each other in turn. They return and four women who have been appointed for this part of the ceremony inspect the girl to see if she has preserved her virginity. (There was some doubt as to when this took place: before the wedding or at this point.) The bride was not deflowered as in Samoa, but merely inspected.

Today the couple are wrapped with mats into great bales which have to be supported by the women who dress the couple. They are then taken away and the mats removed. The four old women keep these by hiding them in some house. This mat-wearing represents the old virginity test.

After this ceremony of marrying the two the great feast is commenced. The couple must remain at the feast all the time and eat with all who bring them food. That night it appears they sleep in public, watched by some old people.

The couple go to the bride's home on the second and third days. It is then that the mats and presents are brought to the bride's home for distribution.

On the fourth day they go to the bridegroom's house taking the remaining portion of the gifts which are distributed among his people. In the end the couple are left with one sleeping mat. This mat is examined after they go to the house where they intend to live, and where they consummate the marriage.

The marriage ends after the fifth day or the second day at the bridegroom's house. Continual feasting goes on throughout the five days. No consummation is allowed until after the five days

Category:

Marriage

Topic:

Ritual(4)

Consultant:

Michele

The girl is brought to a man's house if he is very rich, but usually the man is brought to the girl's on a litter. Litters were only used by the rich or chiefly who alone had the big weddings.

The couple first sat outside under a shade or malmalu where they had a breakfast. The shade was often made by transplanting trees to a suitable place outside the house. Then they were carried down to the sea on a litter and given a bath, said to be called hoa' la kakau which means 'carry to bathe'. The couple's feet were dipped in the water. (This seems to be a change that came in later times, perhaps under missionary rule or white influence, from the actual bath given in 1820 as told by Lesson.)

After the bath the couple were carried to the house for the wedding ceremony. In a large wedding this might be outside under the shade also.

The wedding party is always divided into two parts and these are divided again. The first half is that of the boy's family and the second that of the girl's. Then these are divided into those of the immediate relatives and the family of the godfather or namesake or sigoa.

Members of the girl's family will cut the members of the boy's family on the forehead with a stone axe. This is to take blood for the blood that the girl will lose because of the boy.

The two families sit on opposite sides of the house and the couple sit in the front in the middle. The boy's family then presents the girl with the presents they have brought and cut her virgin lock, and then the girl's family present their mats and cut the lock which the boy has let grow since childhood. The children then sit on their presents and then give them to their respective godfathers "who gets the presents."

After this comes the big feast, which is divided. The man's family has brought food, and so has the girl's, which is prepared by the latter. Then the boy's family returns home. (This is at least the modern custom.)

In the evening there is singing and dancing which is looked after by the agu su.

Cutting of the locks of hair called 'ofiag sope.

The wooden pillow is given the man by the girl's family the first night. The girl is supposed to use the man's arm as a pillow.

Category:

Marriage

Topic:

Rituals(5)

Consultant:

Aisake

The bridgegroom was carried on a litter by four men to the home of the bride. This litter was made of two poles, which ran lengthwise and crosspoles which were tied in place; over this was laid a mat.

When they came to the bride's house, she was put on the litter and the two were carried about the town. (This last statement was not clear.)

At night, the couple were put on a bed of white mats piled high. Over them was a mosquito "net" made of tapa (uha).

Category:

Marriage

Topic:

Rituals(6)

Consultant:

Akanisi

The marriage was at the girl's house unless the man was very rich. She was carried to the wedding by the brothers or uncles or some near relation of the man.

If there was no hata she was carried by two men with hands and forearms locked in a "chair"--each own holding his own left forearm just below the elbow and the right forearm just below the elbow of the other man.

The first feast at the girl's house is the koua ne asi.

The couple were watched by two or three women for the first two or three days of the marriage. There was no consummation until after that.

hata = bier, litter

Category:

Marriage

Topic:

Rituals(7)

Consultant:

Niua

A man from the groom's family comes out and runs up and down the row of men of his family, cuts himself with stone axe, then cuts all the men. He does not cut men of the girl's family as Sarote said.

Mats are counted in front of couple before being taken away.

After the feast all people go home and 3-4 hours later another feast is held.

#1 and #2 feasts are for the family, #3 is for all people. When they go, the family has #4.

As soon as girl is brought to the groom, both are carried on a litter to the sea where they wash with red mud, a native soap = uku. They wash each other.

Feasting and bathing etc. are only for chiefs and rich families.

Half of the goods go to carriers, half go to the couple. Carriers are the only ones hit by the axe (goods as payment) among man's kin.

The couple have to sit up all night watching dancing and singing. Sometimes one night, but at a big wedding as many as three nights at the groom's, three at bride's before being left alone.

Consummation and virginity test are not remembered by Niua.

Today scissors are snipped over over the hair of the bride and groom to indicate severing the locks of an unmarried state.

Category:

Marriage

Topic:

Rituals(8)

Consultant:

Sarote

The bride is carried on a litter to the groom's house for the ceremony. Hata = litter. Men of the man's family sit on a mat in a row and a man of boy's family cuts each one in two or three places on the forehead (kao). Afterwards they feast and drink kava with the couple. Fakpou = feast when man is taken over to girl's before marriage, a week before. Koua ne mose = feast two or three days after the first feast.

When the couple is taken for the first time to the girl's house, the people carried them home on a litter (hata), many mats in a pile with the couple on top. This was a gift to the girl's family.

A hata brings them back to the man's family with the couple on a pile of mats for his family.

A chief's daughter or son leads the procession and carries the man's Rotuman pillow. In olden times every family made a pillow for the girl to give to the man. This is brought back on the return from girl's house. The man's own pillow is carried over on his family's first trip to girl's.

This trip is not repeated after the girl made a second trip to the man's house (probably varied as to wealth and position).

Mats are tied around the girl's waist on the day of marriage and then she is carried on a litter to the man's house. There she is untied and takes her seat with the man. The couple sit inside, unless the house is too small; then a ri hapa is built for wedding.

The man's family bring their gift mats and put them in the girl's lap. The girl's family does the same to the man. Then opposite families cut the couple's hair, the girl's family cuts the man's hair and vice versa. Then mats are exchanged. The man's family take mats from his lap and vice versa.

ri hapa = temporary sheds built for protection against sun and rain at ceremonial events

Category:

Marriage

Topic:

Rituals(9)

Consultant:

Mrs. Kaad

At a marriage there are six feasts in the daytime and three in the evening.

When the groom and bride are taken to his family the second day with all the mats and a koua which go to the groom's family, they call it the aragi.

When the couple are returned to the girl's family again, it is called ao.

After some months at one place or the other, the opposite family will come to call with great presents of food for a koua or else the collection of fish from a great drive. This is called an asi. The presents go to the family who have the couple, and the visitors then take the couple to their home. This may be repeated by the other family in a few months time and this goes on for about a year. The groom usually goes first to the bride's father for whom he must work hard. Many father-in-laws will test the manliness of the sons by giving them the hardest work to perform.

koua = contents of earth oven

Category:

Marriage

Topic:

Rituals(10)

Consultant:

Jotama

1. Koua for the cutting of the heads of the groom's family = faksoko.

2. Koua for the cutting of the virgin's lock of hair, koua ne ofiagasope.

Feasts:

Category:

Marriage

Topic:

Rituals(11)

Consultant:

Rosarima

The brother of the groom or a close member of the groom's family takes an axe and cuts slightly the heads of the immediate family of the groom. This is "respecting the woman and spilling blood for the blood that their family member will cause her to lose when he takes her virginity". After the cutting, the koua ne mös te or faksoko is eaten and the two go to their bed behind the screen or under an uha mosquito net.

No woman attends the bride or takes her virginity "as they do in Samoa". The man does it himself, and the girl lies on an uha sheet. This she wears next morning, if it is covered with blood to show that she was a virgin. There is much shouting and singing if she has this proof.

uha = bark cloth (no longer made)

Category:

Marriage

Topic:

Rituals(12)

Consultant:

Mrs. Kaad

If the wedding is to be held at the house of the boy, a litter is sent with a man of his family on it. He gets the bride at her house and returns on the litter with her. The groom meets her at his own house.Then he is put on the litter in place of his relative and the couple are carried about, dressed in their wedding mats.

The cutting of the male members of the families takes place on one day, the bathing of the couple in the sea takes place on another day.

At the marriage ceremony the male members of the boy's family sat in a line or row. At the proper time one of them would rise and perform a little dance, after which he would take a stone axe and cut the forehead of each man sitting with him so that the blood flowed. Then a member of the men of the girl's family would perform the same thing with all the men of that group.

Category:

Marriage

Topic:

Rituals(13)

Consultant:

Fred Kaad

In the days when a bridal couple were taken to the sea to wash as part of the wedding ritual, the bath was given to clean the sexual organs of the boy and the girl.

Category:

Marriage

Topic:

Rituals(14)

Consultant:

Turaga

Girls were examined for virginity by old man. If a cousin of the girl found she was pure he went around and cut the heads of her family with a stone axe.

Category:

Marriage

Topic:

Rituals(15)

Consultant:

Tavai

When a couple were carried about during their wedding festivities, a man always preceded the litter carrying the groom's pillow.This is a small carved wooden piece, with slightly cupped headrest upheld by two pairs of human legs.

The woman did not have a pillow but was supposed to use the man's arm.

Category:

Marriage

Topic:

Rituals(16)

Consultant:

Poar

Poar was married at his wife's house and the third day they went to his house. The pillow, kuruga, was carried ahead of them by the girl. They spent one day at Poar's and then the next day they returned to his wife's house to live.

The pillow preceded the couple, just as mats are carried in advance of the people presenting them.

The pillow was made by a majau.

majau = craftsman

Category:

Marriage

Topic:

Rituals(17)

Consultant:

Sarote

If a twin married, his or her twin, if of the same sex, would sit at the marriage. One twin sat on each side of the groom (if twin girls) or bride (if twin boys).

see twins at birth and twins at burial

Category:

Marriage

Topic:

Rituals(18)

Consultant:

Fuata

At weddings there is a clown who is said to rule the party. She acts in a funny way to entertain the crowd. Today her clothes are peculiar and usually of many brilliant colors. Her "rule" over the wedding gives her power to set aside the groom and send him away while she sets up another man in his place for the day.

Father Soubeyran adds that only an old woman would do this, as young people would be ashamed.

clown = han mane'ak su

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