Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Gawai Dayak comes from Gawai meaning festival and Dayak a collective name for the indigenous peoples of Sarawak, Indonesian Kalimantan and the interior of Borneo. The population estimate is two to four million people. The Dayaks, previously known as the Sea Dayak are mostly Iban people.
Since conversion to Christianity, some Iban people celebrate their ancestors' pagan festivals using Christian ways and the majority still observe Gawai Dayak (the Dayak Festival), which is a generic celebration in nature unless a gawai proper is held and thereby preserves their ancestors' culture and tradition.
There is an emerging category of life-building gawai called dream festivals such as Gawai Lesong (Rice Mortar Festival) and Gawai Tangga (Notched Ladder Festival) and some newly innovated variants of the gawai proper as a result of dream by a person or several individuals. These are popular among the Iban in the upper Rajang region.
Many Dayak especially Iban continue to practice traditional ceremonies, particularly with dual marriage rites and during the important harvest and ancestral festivals such as Gawai Dayak, Gawai Kenyalang and Gawai Antu. Other ethnicities who have a rapidly dwindling and trace amount of animism practitioners are Melanau and Bidayuh.
[77] [78] [79] Sarawak is the only state in Malaysia to declare the Gawai Dayak celebration a public holiday. [80] It is also the only state in Malaysia that does not gazette the Deepavali celebration as a public holiday. [81] Religious groups are free to hold processions in major towns and cities during festivals. [82]
Gawai may refer to: Gawai, A village in Chitwan, Nepal; Gawai Dayak, annual festival celebrated by the Dayak people in Sarawak, Malaysia; See also. Gavai, a surname
Gawai – Gawai Dayak is an annual festival celebrated by the Dayak people in Sarawak, Malaysia and West Kalimantan, Indonesia on 1 and 2 June. It is a public holiday in Sarawak and is both a religious and a social occasion recognised since 1957.
The dance is performed while accompanying guests to the leader of the longhouse. This dance is a welcome for guests who come to the long house during Gawai or during other festivals. [12] Ngajat Mai Antu Pala [nga-jat ma-yiq an-tu pa-laq] : Ngajat for those Iban is a welcome dance during Gawai Day, before the war and after the harvest season ...