Christmas with food, games

Weekender

By BOURA GORUKILA
THE people of Imuagoro Village in Rigo, Central closed the year 2020 with a very big feast that involved the whole community.
It was also the villagers’ way of celebrating Christmas and the new year. The theme of the event was The birth of Jesus binds the earth and heaven under his jurisdiction. Celebrations of the important Christian event culminated in the major feasting which took place on Jan 1.
There were 26 groups who participated in the feast to feed the entire village.
The feast was

Food gathered by the 26 groups in Imuagoro village, Rigo, Central on the feasting day on New Year.

organised by the local church administration, under the local minister Rev Benben Vaula and his good wife and congregation chairman Lalai Vali.
Vali said they had come up with such a programme so that everyone would get busy during the Christmas period.
They had to engage the young people especially to prevent them from getting drunk and disturbing the community during the festive period like in the past.
Many yams, bananas and sugar canes were harvested from gardens, and store goods such as 35 fresh meat cartons, 27 cartons of frozen chicken, cartons of sausages, 200-plus rice bags, bales of sugar, cartons of soft drinks and betel nut bags were bought for the feast.
Every home had its share of food.
The villagers also got to feed the poor, the unfortunate and the orphans in their community.
The actual Christmas celebrations which started on Dec 6, leading up to the feast, were very peaceful, according to village elders.
Both the old and young were involved in the celebrations, so they had no time to do anything that would disturb the peace in the village. There were no fights or disturbances so it was a trouble-free period of happiness and goodwill.
Even if there were any incident, it would have been brought under control by villagers who had volunteered to provide security throughout the whole period.
Activities during the celebrations included sports amongst certain age groups, gospel music and dance performances from the 26 groups, all led by clans who also held devotions at night.
There are eight clans in the village – Sinauna, Osiva, Namoka, Rokuna, Gaemana, Babaga, Magura and Ikana – who all participated in the programme when invited.
The village square was packed with people and vehicles because most families living in Port Moresby city also went home to spend Christmas with relatives and friends.
About K30,000 was spent by the groups to host this successful feast. Although the villagers previously spent money and other resources for a couple of bride price payments and a church boubou or thanksgiving during the year, they were able to raise enough money to spend of the Christmas-New Year feast which turned out successful and was enjoyed by everyone.
There is hope for a bigger and better celebration and feast at the end of this year, according to the villagers.
Meanwhile, in a mini sporting event that occurred prior to the main feast, Team Eagles laid out a feast for the other villagersports group called Besenamona Sharks.
Eagles provided five cartons of fresh meat, a carton of chicken, a pig, 15 bags of rice, two baskets of yams and 23 bananas for Besenamona Sharks.
In the women’s netball matches, Eagles won the D and C grade games while Sharks won the B grade division. In the A grade game the teams drew.
In the men’s rugby league match, Sharks won with 10 points to nil.
Besenamona Sharks will host a feast for Eagles during the return match at the end of this year.
Soon after the feast on New Year, the Sharks held their first meeting and are planning to throw a bigger and better feast for the Eagles come Christmas 2021.