Supa Mario
Christmas and its holidays are drawing near and everyone seems to look forward to. It is a season of “love and hope” as they would say, bringing loved ones together with gifts and presents. But at the end of the day, families would be spending and businesses would be thriving. It has been the case for centuries all around the globe making the rich richer and the poor poorer.
The delusion that we’re doing this for Jesus has mentally enslaved the Island nation into adopting a foreign tradition, “Tonganize” it as Kilisimasi and made it our own. Yes, now it is a Tongan thing and we have a Tongan way of celebrating it.
It is strange, the celebration itself wasnt commanded in the Bible and yet, we find ourselves having to keep doing it while falling short to keep the very commandments that were actually commanded. But this is not about why we’re celebrating but how!
There appears to be a pattern in the “how” we go about into celebrating almost everything – feasts. In every celebration there is a feast. We feast in birthdays, weddings and also in funerals. We feast for Church activities, gatherings and most notably, the annual general meetings. There will be feasts this Christmas and New Year.
There is a saying, “ko e māfana ‘a e Tongá”. It fuels the notion that we should have a feast and it should be gigantic, or at least bigger than that of our neighbour’s. But all these feasts cost more today than they did in the past. It has a real health impact that contributes to Tonga being one of the top obese countries in the World.
More importantly, it has an economic cost where people are being pushed into spending more on consumer goods rather than capital goods. For some, it has cost the education of their children. So why are we still doing it?
The simple and accurate answer is – it is our culture! This was how our ancestors have been doing things in the past. They loved their feasts and fortunately for them, it didnt cost as much. They did not have to spend on food crops and livestock. But unfortunately for us things have changed. A simple but small feast today will likely cost at least TOP $1000 for the food alone. So the question is:
Should we follow also in our ancestor’s footsteps just for the sake of following?
Most of the traditions that we dearly try to hold on to, are out-dated. Times have changed, life moves on as it progresses naturally but our heads are still locked in the past, trying to make relevant what no longer does. Desperately holding on will cost us more and in ways that could cripple us in the future.
Its about time we invent a new Tongan way of celebrating. An upgrade to our culture is no longer just something to think about, but a cultural reform to be made. And this is just one of the many reforms we need to discuss openly and honestly.