Christmas 2011 in Nagaland - Vishepu (II)
On the day of the Christmas feast, the whole (or most of the) village gathered in front of I.'s parents' home (well technically the house owned by her father's brother - I think). I noticed that most of the people sitting in this area were kids. They brought their own plates - you can some of them just brought the usual asükhu, the wood plate with its own stand.
As with the Christmas feast I attended last year, the morning's festivities began with the cake ceremony, after a prayer or two of course. The cake here was brought all the way from Dimapur.
The entertainment programme began with ashi kimiki, where one (or two) guys(s) holds a large piece of pork meat and fat and other men try to bite off chunks of meat / fat. There's also some stylised jumping involved, but I'm not 100% certain what the rules are. Also, even though the name of the game contains the word ashi 'meat', most of it is really fat - maybe some people call it atha kimiki? The word kimiki is the deverbal noun derived from the verb miki 'to bite'.
There was also a comedy act - if you think people from villages don't have a sense of humour, you're sadly mistaken! The main guy was dressed like a tourist, while the other guys were... well one of them reminded me of George Michael. They danced to a Hindi song I didn't recognise. I'd post a video, but it already took hours just to get these photos up.
And after lunch was the bamboo climbing competition. Climbers took part in teams of 3 to 4, with no special climbing equipment allowed except for some ash which they can use to clean off the pork fat from the pole.
The happy winners and their bounty - a chunk of meat and 1000 Rs!
As with the Christmas feast I attended last year, the morning's festivities began with the cake ceremony, after a prayer or two of course. The cake here was brought all the way from Dimapur.
The entertainment programme began with ashi kimiki, where one (or two) guys(s) holds a large piece of pork meat and fat and other men try to bite off chunks of meat / fat. There's also some stylised jumping involved, but I'm not 100% certain what the rules are. Also, even though the name of the game contains the word ashi 'meat', most of it is really fat - maybe some people call it atha kimiki? The word kimiki is the deverbal noun derived from the verb miki 'to bite'.
There was also a comedy act - if you think people from villages don't have a sense of humour, you're sadly mistaken! The main guy was dressed like a tourist, while the other guys were... well one of them reminded me of George Michael. They danced to a Hindi song I didn't recognise. I'd post a video, but it already took hours just to get these photos up.
And after lunch was the bamboo climbing competition. Climbers took part in teams of 3 to 4, with no special climbing equipment allowed except for some ash which they can use to clean off the pork fat from the pole.
The happy winners and their bounty - a chunk of meat and 1000 Rs!
Alright, Christmas is over. Onward to 2012!
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