A Fiji Kava Ceremony is something you will undoubtly experience if you travel there. It’s a dead certainty if you go on a Sigatoka River Safari.
Kava (also known as ‘grog’ or ‘yaqona’) is a mildy narcotic substance that is sourced from a tree root. It’s ground up into a powder, which then has water run through it, like below…
Fiji Kava Cermony – Bula!
to produce a drink that looks like this:
It doesn’t look appetising (some people say Kava looks like and tastes like muddy water), but it actually tastes not too bad! Let’s just say it’s way better than chewing Betel Nut in the Solomon Islands!
I felt a tingling on the end of my tongue after a drink of this stuff. Some Fijians have long 6 or 7 hour sessions of drinking this Kava, which can cause participants to be rather intoxicated!
Kava is drunk out of a ‘half coconut bowl‘ which is scooped into a large central Kava bowl (or more like a vat!).
Kava is then offered in this fashion to everyone during the Fiji Kava Ceremony:
To receive the Kava, you clap your hand and shout ‘Bula!’.
Some people find the taste a bit nicer than others…
Singing is also a big part of the Fiji Kava Ceremony. You’ll find a guitar in almost every village house.
It’s hard not to smile throughout a Fiji Kava Ceremony, because these songs are all uplifting. Or maybe that was the Kava as well… 😉
After you finish Drinking Kava, it’s time for a big feed, which is another great aspect of Fiji life!
If you get a chance, I’d try the unique experience that is the Kava Drinking Ceremony! You’ll be smiling for a week if you do – and that’s not just from the Kava!
More Fiji Kava Ceremony Stuff
If you want to learn more about Kava, check out Kava: The Pacific Elixir: The Definitive Guide to Its Ethnobotany, History, and Chemistry.
Thanks to Sigatoka River Safaris and Tourism Fiji for organising this thoroughly enjoyable trip!
BULA (or hello). Very nice photos and story. Have you experienced such friendliness elsewhere?
We hope you’ll visit again, and if you’re from the States, why not open a kava bar and cash-in on the growing demand there?
Just search for: “fiji premium kava root powder” on either; Google, Ask, Bing or Yahoo, and I’ll serve you our best.
.-= Simione´s last blog ..May 18, Samoan and Hybrid Taro =-.
Now that you’ve experienced the charms of Fiji’s peoples and traditions, may we suggest you petition your members of parliament regarding the unfounded kava bans?
Consider…
According to the Australian governments suck-and-blow-at-the-same-time-logic, an Australian is free to purchase two kilos of kava offshore and bring these into the country to consume but this same Australian is not allowed to sell or buy them in Australia.
All this really results in is a bias against small island communities in Australia, while not mentioning the loss of business for grower communities who this very same government is purportedly helping with AusAid. Why should we continue with this mythical aid when what we need is investment that is generated from surpluses from kava sales.
Kava bans result in small island states losing millions in profits, tax revenues and jobs. For aid???
If the Australian government considers it safe for an Australian to use kava, why is it unsafe then to purchase the exact same product in an Australian store? Sounds like some sort of scam to me. No one, not even a bureaucrat, can be so incompetent as to penalize Australians in this manner.
We certainly look forward to a change in policy just as we rekindled the rugby union spirit in Australia in the 1950’s when invited to test matches when we displayed our form of ‘running rugby’.
Or when we laid down our lives in the great wars for freedom.
Prohibition never worked and never will. It only perpetuates illegal activities and the growth of the underworld.
Won’t you help us now. Kava bans are repulsive!
Kava Bans Are Repulsive
kava root powder – WAKA – Fresh pounded from Taveuni – call me on 0411-733-142 $80 Kg- superior product, try before you buy- elsewhere in Liverpool NSW, some shops sell up to $120 Kg, Limited qantity available
Actually, kava is a drug and should be consumed in the Fiji travel industry in limited quantities. Recently the Methodist church in Fiji (Which had some of the biggest consumers in the country) banned all kava consumption on it’s premises because they recognised that it made it’s ministers lethargic.
I don’t think too much of the stuff is too good for you!
Its banned in Northern Territory completely, our btothers therevmix it in methalated spirit and consume it becoming disoriented