The 2010 Malagasy New Year bookmarked by the Fihavanana

The 2010  New Year starts on March 15th and 16th according to the tradition and the Malagasy lunar calendar, and will be celebrated in Ambohimanga. The place has not only been chosen for having been one of the centers of the Merina kingdom. The celebration itself has been wandering year after year, following the stages of the royal history. It is actually touring across Ambohitrimanjaka, Alasora, Ambohitrabiby and finally Ambohimanga. The determination of the New Year’s date used to be a cause for controversies between a couple of general trends. March would generally represent the start of the harvest period, as rice is finally mature.  

The witty phrase produced by great king Andrianampoinimerina during the celebration of one of these events has gone down in history: “I have no enemy but starvation”. The sovereign’s first message to his people was a call upon respect for the laws of mother nature: mastering the environment, producing from cultivated lands, loving and respecting life and leaving it grow. According to the Trano kolotoraly malagasy, the fihavanana (friendship, order, support) between men was not a problem in the ancient society. The king’s main concern was the preservation of harmony and balance between humans and nature so that respected land turns out its fruits. Good harvests used to be a pledge for wealth; starvation was defeated, and social peace naturally preserved.  

Great King Andrianampoinimerina’s second hint was a message of pacifism, although he had been using war as a way to unify a large part of the island. He extolled the “fihavanana” between Malagasy, whose single enemy only had to be starvation. This” fihavanana ” is exactly the double message promote by this year’s Malagasy New Year: social comprehension and mutual respect, as heritage of the ancient traditional society. The New Year is the moment of great forgiveness, an occasion to settle social issues, between people as well as leaders. In 2010, the event is likely to be a real purgatory for a post modern Malagasy polarized society engulfed in a never ending crisis.  

On Sunday March 14th, a religious ceremony will mark the celebrations’ beginning in Ambohitrabiby at 14:30 local time. The “immortal Torch” will depart from there on Monday March 15th, at 15:00 local time. The “Afo tsy maty” will make repeated halts through some historic villages. Its light and heat will continuously have to be fed up in order to welcome the D-Day. And the D-day comes on March 16th. Celebrations are starting very early in Ambohimanga. A blessing and happy year wishes ceremony will take place at 05:30 a.m.. The social celebration is beginning at 07:00 a.m. with a traditional breakfast made of rice with milk and honey. Merriments officially begin at 10:00 a.m.: spectacles and folk representations are scheduled. And merrymaking finally ends with a large scale lunch for some 1500 guests, all supposed to be bound to tackle a promising New Year in peace and harmony