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Writer's pictureTahiana

Taom-baovao Malagasy or the Malagasy New Year


As all of the people who has got old civilization and already existed centuries or millennium ago and apart from the culture and tradition, Madagascar belongs to those countries that has its own calendar. Actually, Malagasy people use the moon to count the days in each month and they are always 29 or 30 days. Also, the names of months in Malagasy are taken from the combination of Sanskrit and Arabic but they are in Malagasy words that we use and understand nowadays, like Alahamady or Asarabe (April), Adaoro or Vatravatra (May), Adizaozy or Asotry (June), Asorontany or Hatsia (July) ... I started with this month April in the Gregorian calendar because this coincides or corresponds the first month of the year in Malagasy calendar. Only at the beginning of the 19th century after the Christian missionaries came to Madagascar that we started to use the Gregorian calendar that is an international standard and is used today in the country.


Let's go back to our main subject. The Malagasy people have their "Taona Vaovao" or litterally New Year and it is always close to the March Equinox where the Sun crosses the Celestial Equator (imaginary line in the sky above the Earth's equator, the Sun is going from the South to the North Hemisphere). More precisely, it's always the new moon close to this Equinox. For this year 2019, the Malagasy New Year is the Friday, April 5th at 11:50 am.


Ceremony during the "taom-baovao Malagasy"

The tradition is, people should be vegetarians a month before this New Year, this is to purify the body. On the New Year's eve, people make ritual where they take bath, this is in order to purify their bodies with water. The afternoon, they make a big fire camp when there's still sunlight and take care of it till the morning when the daylight is coming. People take lanterns where the light is taken from the fire camp and go around the village or town this night. It is done as a purification by the fire of all town or village. When the New Year is coming, zebus are sacrificed to give Honor to God and people are eating rice mixed with milk and honey for hoping for a healthy, abundant and a prosperous year. This is a time also where the elders are giving benediction to all of their descendants and all of the communities.


To end it, i wish all and everyone who read this blog a "Happy and Prosperous Malagasy New Year!"


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