Kava Ceremony

Kava is the national drink of Fiji and is used ceremonially. Tonight we witnessed a traditional kava ceremony. The large bowls that have been in some of my photos are kava bowls.

There is a leader who makes the kava drink. The dried herb is ground and put in a muslin type bag and then water is poured out from the coconut leaf into the bowl with the kava. The leader turns, swirls and wrings the kava bag in the water with his hands to make the tea.

When one is ready to receive the hand, they clap their hands together one time to signal they accept. Then they raise the bowl made out of coconut hull. The leader fills their bowl with the kava tea. They drink the whole bowl like a shot (it's about 3 oz). Then the one who poured claps three times and the one who received puts the bowl down and claps three times to signal "thank you".

The woman who poured mine said to me with a little grin, "You get three servings. " In the end I had two servings; that's about all I could handle. It's nasty bitter and it tingles the tongue. Felt like dental novacaine in my mouth. I did notice about 15 min later that my legs felt weird. I felt like my legs were longer or shorter than they actually were. It was definitely from the kava, and a sensation that Ive never had before.

I'll have to try some kava back home to see what that's like.

For dinner they served vegetable stew or beef stew.Read more