What do samoans celebrate

Tattooing is a very important form of adornment. Western Samoa is one of the areas of Polynesia that has seen a rebirth of the tradition of tattooing. Young men, more than young women, have returned to the custom of tattooing. Traditional Samoan foods included taro root, yams, bananas, coconuts, breadfruit, fish, turtle, and chicken. Even though pigs are raised, pork is reserved for ceremonial occasions.

Samoan meals are always accompanied by a salted coconut cream condiment called pe'epe'e. It is poured over boiled taro root and heated before serving. For many rural Samoans, this is a staple food and is served at the two daily meals. Coconut is not eaten in Western Samoa as it is in other areas.

For a Samoan, eating coconut is a sign of poverty. The favorite Samoan beverage is koko Samoa, which is made from fermented cacao beans the source of chocolate and cocoa , water, and brown Fijian sugar. It is an essential part of the village meal in Western Samoa. The literacy rate proportion of the people who are able to read and write in Western Samoa is about 90 percent.

Parents see education as absolutely necessary for their children's future. Even in the most isolated villages, parents send at least some of their children to school. In Western Samoa, as opposed to American Samoa, traditional Samoan songs are the favorites of young and old alike. In American Samoa, American popular music is preferred by the young people. Polynesian dancing is still practiced in Western Samoa. Making persuasive speeches is considered an art among all Samoans.

Village leaders participate in political debates to show off their skill in public speaking. The city of Apia provides Samoans with work opportunities in many fields, including jobs as government workers, teachers, nurses, clerks, business entrepreneurs, and secretaries.

Men hold approximately 60 percent of the wage-earning jobs. Cricket is an important game, and there is a cricket pitch in the middle of every village green. Rugby is also a very big spectator and participant sport. Boxing, wrestling, and American football are favorite sports in both parts of Samoa. A number of professional football players in the United States are of Samoan descent. For Samoans who live in or near Apia, most of the usual forms of entertainment found in any modern city are available.

Longboat races, called fautasi, are held at important festivals and public celebrations. Dominoes are a favorite pastime of Samoan men in both rural areas and towns. The traditional art of barkcloth siapo manufacturing has been all but lost in Samoan culture today. In traditional Samoan society, artists who specialized in house construction, canoe building, and tattooing were organized into guilds, groups somewhat like modern unions.

These artists worked for families of high status who could afford to pay them well. Migration out of the area is a major problem for both Western Samoa and American Samoa. Over 60 percent of the American Samoan population has moved to the U. Lockwood, Victoria S. Harding, and Ben J. Wallace, ed. Englewood Cliffs, N.

Mead, Margaret. Coming of Age in Samoa. London, England: Penguin, orig. O'Meara, Tim. Scuba Diving. Peruvian Amazon Cruise. South Pacific. North America. Colors of Morocco. Costa Rica Adventure. Secluded Zanzibar. Welcome to iExplore. Email Address. Password Confirmation. Sign up for Newsletter. The same traditions apply, with the father of the house at the centre of celebrations. Think traditional Siva dancing , fire knife dancing, tattooing and carving demonstrations, Umu demonstrations underground Samoan oven cooking , the annual Flower Float Parade , the popular Fautasi race iconic Samoan boat race , and the crowning of Miss Samoa.

Samoan culture treasures children and this day is all about them. They may get gifts or privileges usually reserved for adults like eating first. All women and children wear white and they run special programs during church services including biblical story re-enactments, recitations and dance performances. Samoa starts celebrating Christmas 13 days before the day itself. In these 13 days government ministries and other congregations are invited to sing Christmas carols in their own style which are aired on TV.

Good Friday. Holy Saturday. Easter Sunday. Easter Monday. Anzac Day - 25 April. Arbor Day - first Friday in November. Christmas Day - 25 December. Boxing Day - 26 December. Register here if you don't have an account. Learn More. Sites and Attractions. When you Arrive in Samoa. The availability of migrant remittances has transformed the design and materials used in private homes and public buildings.

Houses typically have large single rectangular spaces around which some furniture is spread and family portraits, certificates, and religious pictures are hung. Homes increasingly have indoor cooking and bathing facilities. The new architecture has reshaped social relations. Indigenous building materials are being replaced by sawn lumber framing and cladding, iron roofing, and concrete foundations.

The coral lime cement once used in larger public buildings has been replaced by concrete and steel. Food in Daily Life. Samoans eat a mixture of local and imported foods. Local staples include fish, lobster, crab, chicken, and pork; lettuce and cabbage; root vegetables such as talo, ta'amu, and yams; tree crops such as breadfruit and coconut; and local beverages such as coffee and cocoa.

Imported foods include rice, canned meat and fish, butter, jam, honey, flour, sugar, bread, tea, and carbonated beverages. Many families drink beverages such as tea throughout the day but have a single main meal together in the evening. A range of restaurants, including a McDonald's, in the capital are frequented largely by tourists and the local elite. Food Customs at Ceremonial Occasions. Sharing of food is a central element of ceremonies and features in Sunday meals known as toana'i , the feasts that accompany weddings and funerals and the conferring of chiefly titles, and annual feasts such as White Sunday.

Special meals are marked by a larger than usual amount of food, a greater range of delicacies, and formality. Food also features in ceremonial presentations and exchanges between families and villages. The presentation of cooked whole pigs is a central feature of such events, and twenty-liter drums of salted beef are increasingly popular.

Kava 'ava , a beverage made from the powdered root of Piper methysticum, made and shared in a ceremonially defined order at meetings of chiefs matai and less formally among men after work.

Basic Economy. The agricultural and industrial sectors employ 70 percent of the workforce and account for 65 percent of the gross domestic product GDP.

The service sector employs 30 percent of those employed and accounts for 35 percent of the GDP. Much of this sector is associated with the tourist industry, which is limited by intense competition from other islands in the region and its dependence on economic conditions in source countries. The economy ran large trade deficits in the s.

These remittances are declining because overseas-born children of migrants have attenuated their connections with the nation, whose geopolitical significance has declined since the Cold War ended. Land Tenure and Property. Much agricultural production comes from the 87 percent of the land held under customary tenure and associated with villages.

The control of this land is vested in elected chiefs matai , who administer it for the families aiga they head. The remaining 13 percent is land held by the crown and a small area of freehold residential land around the capital.

Samoa produces some primary commodities for export: hardwood timber, copra and coconut products, root vegetables, coffee, cocoa, and fish. Agricultural produce constitutes 90 percent of exports. The most promising export crop, taro, was effectively eliminated by leaf blight in A small industrial sector designed to provide import substitution and exports processes primary commodities such as coconut cream and oil, animal feed, soap, biscuits, cigarettes, and beer.

A multinational corporation has established a wiring harness assembly plant whose production is reexported; and a clothing assembly plant is planned. Classes and Castes. Samoan society is meritocratic. Those with recognized ability have traditionally been elected to leadership of families. Aside from four nationally significant chiefly titles, the influence of most titles is confined to the families and villages with which they are associated.

Title holders gained status and influence not only from accumulating resources but also from their ability to mobilize and redistribute them. These principles work against significant permanent disparities in wealth.

The power of chiefs has been reduced, and the wealth returned by expatriates has flowed into all sectors of society, undermining traditional rank-wealth correlations. The public influence of women is becoming increasingly apparent. A commercial elite that has derived its power from the accumulation and investment of private wealth has become increasingly influential in politics.

The legislative branch of the government consists of a unicameral Legislative Assembly O Le Fono a Faipule elected to five-year terms by universal suffrage.

A twelve-member cabinet nominated by the prime minister is appointed by the head of state, Malietoa Tanumafili II, who has held that position since Forty-seven members are elected by Samoans in eleven electorates based on traditional political divisions.

Two members at large represent general electors. Only holders of matai titles can be elected to the Fono. Legislation is administered by a permanent public service that consists of people chosen on the basis of merit.

The quality of public service has been questioned periodically since independence. Concern with the quality of governance has led the current government to engage in training programs aimed at institutional strengthening.

The judicial branch includes a Supreme Court, a court of appeals, and a lands and titles court. These agencies deal with matters that cannot be dealt with by village polities. Village polities fono a matai are empowered by the Village Fono Act of to make and administer bylaws for the regulation of Upolu police officer in traditional dress.

Social Problems and Control. The role of village politics in the maintenance of order is important because the state has no army and a relatively small police force. This limits the ability of the state to enforce laws and shapes its relations with villages, which retain significant autonomy.

Samoans accept and trust these institutions but have found that they are ineffective in areas such as the pursuit of commercial debts. Recent cases have pointed to tension between collective rights recognized, emphasized, and enforced by village polities, and the individual rights conferred by the constitution in areas such as freedom of religion and speech.

The government is responsible for health, education, and welfare in cooperation with villages and churches. Health care and education are provided for a nominal cost. Families provide for their members' welfare. The state grants a small old-age pension, and the Catholic Church runs a senior citizens' home. People under the portico of the immigration office as traffic passes by in Apia.

Ethnic tensions are virtually non-existent in Samoa. The most influential nongovernmental organizations NGOs are the churches, in which 99 percent of Samoans participate actively and which actively comment on the government's legislative program and activity.

A small number of NGOs work for the rights of women and the disabled, environmental conservation, and transparency in government. Professional associations exert some influence on the drafting of legislation. These organizations have a limited impact on the life of most residents. The organization of traditional production was clearly gendered, and the parts of this mode of production that remain intact are still gendered. The constitution provides for equality of opportunity, and there are no entrenched legal, social, or religious obstacles to equality for women.

There is some evidence of growing upward social mobility by women. Samoan society is composed of extended families aiga potopoto , each of which is associated with land and a chiefly title. All Samoans inherit membership and land use rights in the aiga of their parents' parents. They may choose to live with one or more of aiga and develop strong ties with those in which they live. Choices are determined by matters such as the availability of resources and status of various groups and personal preference.

Aiga potopoto include resident members who work the land, "serve" the chief, and exercise full rights of membership and nonresident members who live outside the group but have some rights in its activities. Resident members live in clusters of households within the village, share some facilities and equipment, and work on family-land controlled by the matai. Rights to reside on and use land are granted to members of a kin group who request them, subject to availability.

Rights lapse at death, and matai may then reassign them. There is a growing tendency to approve the transmission of rights to parcels of land from parents to children, protecting investments in development and constituting a form of de facto freehold tenure.

Since neither lands nor titles can be formally transmitted without the consent of the kin group, the only property that can be assigned is personal property. Many residents die intestate and with little personal property. With increasing personal wealth, provision for the formal disposition of wealth may assume greater importance.