Indonesia ● Flores ● Ngada regency
Reba, roots of goodness
Reba is a new year traditional ceremony, held in Ngada Regency, Flores Island, East Nusa Tenggara. The Reba ethnic celebration is a thanksgiving for God's kindness and provision. It aims to honor and express gratitude for the services of the ancestors, that the Ngada people enjoy through agriculture, animal husbandry, nature and others.
The ceremony is also used to evaluate everything about community life in the previous year that the Ngada people have lived. Families and communities ask for guidance from religious leaders and traditional leaders to be able to live a better life in the new year.
Reba is celebrated once a year between January and February, depending on the instructions of the local leaders who determine the period of celebration. In the Reba feast, people's gratitude for God's goodness is symbolized through Uwi (Yam or sweet potato but not cassava). Uwi is believed to be an inexhaustible source of food, the bread of human life for the Ngada’s people. So, from here it is hoped that the Ngada people will never experience food insecurity or starvation. It is the Reba’s rite main symbol.
Like Uwi, a food that lasts a long time, Reba is not extinct. Local people continue to breed with the natural environment and continue to support the traditional way, from generation to generation. It is really representing the people’s life of East Nusa Tenggara, away from modern speed of life and factory consumerism.
Interestingly, Reba is not only a special event for Ngada people to gather in their respective traditional houses. It is also an opportunity for grace, because all enmity, strife in the family must end right away.
Through Reba, humans are like “born again”. New in attitude, speech and deed. At Reba's party, the new generation of children are always reminded of the voice of the ancestors. From the local language, the words basically says :
believe in God almighty
respect humanity
follow the predecessors
study and work to completion
go to the garden and return home
find a good job, so that you can return home safely
do good with friends
sympathize with widows and orphans, with the poor and the neglected
admit someone else’s belonging belongs to someone else
don't be greedy
cultivate noble values
work hard and enjoy your own sweat
In the same vein of gratitude, the ethnic Chinese community celebrates Chinese new year. It is a celebration of memories of the noble values inherited from Chinese ethnic ancestors. Just like Reba, it is a great moment to gather with family.
You can watch the Reba Festival in Ngada Regency, Flores Island, which involves several sub-districts, namely Aimere, Bajawa, Jerebu’u, Mataloko, and Soa. Each sub-district that participates will take turns in the schedule for hosting it every year. This is intended so that each sub-district is given honor and has a fair role.
The Reba Ceremony is a 3-4 days process. The night before the ceremony begins, there will be a house entrance ceremony and ends with a meal together, between residents of the houses involved, and guests (friends, families). Off course, this ceremony will be held with a chicken / pork sacrifice. Only, the main dish in this feast is sweet potato.
Every animal that has been killed will have its blood taken and smeared on the pillars of each traditional house.
Before the peak ceremony begins, the people of the village prepare food in each of their respective traditional houses and it is mandatory to do this, incase any guest stop by at the traditional house. Whether people are relatives or not, they still consider themselves as family.
Before the Reba traditional ceremony, residents perform the “O Uwi” ceremony. O Uwi is a regional art activity, in the form of dances and songs. This inculturation mass is held in the church led by a priest. Several series of ceremonies are also accompanied by a choir of church songs, and using the local Ngada language. This activity is blending traditional customs with Christianism religion.
Outside the church, the atmosphere of the traditional ceremony grew livelier, when the audience and dancers are offered one or two glasses of wine (Tua). This is the tradition of every Ngada person who attends the ceremony. However, Reba is not just a fun party, but a form of joy of the Ngada people while maintaining a spiritual feel.
During the Reba ceremony, dancing is accompanied by dancers holding long swords (for men) and colorful sticks, decorated with white goat hair at the ends (for women).
The dancers will eventually present accompaniment music using single-stringed instruments made of coconut shells or forest pumpkins. This musical instrument is unique because the resonance chamber is covered with goat skin and the center is perforated. The scraper is a bamboo stick tied with woven thread and rubbed with wax.
This activity is carry out to invite the entire village community (or surrounding villages) to join the dance. They wear the same clothes as the other dancers, form a circle around, stomp their feet together, and exchange rhymes with each other, using Bajawa language only. Uniquely at the end of each rhyme, they scream together “O Uwi” while dancing.
In the end, all the rhymes may end into stories or poetry. They can talk about anything or everything, people around, jokes, serious things, noble values. Seen from an angle, it’s a kind of rap flow using local language.
In Ngada Regency, it is possible to see several traditional villages that clearly display standing stones, as if we are in the midst of a society that still survives the stone age. The Ngada people also know the terms Ngadhu and Bhaga. Ngadhu is a symbol of the male ancestor figure, and Bhaga is the female ancestor figure.
Standing stone places are sacred, and used to communicate with the ancestors. Only certain people are given the privilege to be able to stand on those, like the ones who do poetry, or praying for the ancestors, or against bad things.
After the culmination of the ceremony is over, the Uwi collected is brought back to the respective traditional homes for the closing ceremony. This ceremony is held in each traditional house respectively, called Sa’o.
Like divination, Ngada people will see how their village’s condition will be, by reading from the hearts of fresh chickens. Only certain people can read messages from the ancestors through the chicken guts. Uwi is also sliced with the elders, and eaten by the family together. Some is placed in the ancestral house, to be given to the ancestors. It’s an invitation for them to be present in the house. The process is a way to be grateful for the harvest and predict the journey for the next year, until the next Reba ceremony.
By following and preserving those rituals, the sacred mandate of their ancestors is perpetuating. It’s achieving prosperity, peace and happiness among all Ngada community.
Even though today the Ngada people are familiar with rice for the family's menu, in fact, the Ngada people's staple food remains sweet potatoes. In the celebration of the Reba Festival, Ngada people who are wandering must go home, to follow traditional rituals of smoothing harmonious relations with God, nature and ancestors, as well as rebuilding brotherhood among families and fellow members of the entire Ngada community.
Ranging from children, adults and parents, all must obey to traditional rituals as the foundation of life. They were born and raised in a traditional environment inherited from the ancestors. As a noble knowledge, they must understand the struggles of the ancestors of the Ngada people who reached the hills, valleys and mountains in Ngada Regency thousands of years ago, standing for those lands.
As a legacy, many other traditional rituals inherited from the ancestors of the Ngada people, continue to be carried out and maintained.
