Last night was our senior class FiaFia Night. “Fiafia” directly translated to “happy,” but the night is one filled traditional Samoan performances. Every spring the seniors put on the FiaFia night as a fundraiser for all of their end of the year’s activities. Each of the Samoan Culture classes put together their own set of performances complete with the traditional sivas. During the siva, it is customary for the audience to come up and throw money on the stage or stick it to the performer they are supporting.
It was so much fun to see all my senior students up on stage having fun. The girls wore their puletasi school uniform, but the boys went more traditional, shirtless with palm necklaces. The boys also rub baby oil all over their bodies, so that they are nice and shiny.
Along with all the traditional dances, the kids performed some funny routines (with boys dressed as girls), and overall they put on a great show. Though a bit long (6:45pm - 10:00pm), it was a fun experience!
(P.S. Sorry for the crazy number of typos in the original post.Writing blog posts late at night is, apparently, not a good idea. Thank you for suffering through my awful writing.)
So why do some guys where shirts and others do not? Why do some of the girls wear blue skirts and others are wearing yellow? Is there any significance? Other than modesty?
ReplyDeleteVery very few boys had shirts on. If they did, then they are fa'fafine or it was in a funny skit where they dressed up as girls. The yellow skirts were for a themed Tongan dance.
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