There is a little known fact about Fiji and the people who live here..besides been warm and friendly and extremely well tanned! heehee there is something else about us...WE LOVE PUBLIC HOLIDAYS! yes so much so that we have 13 or 14 public holidays every year! Take for instance this month, after a long drought of public hols since Jan we have the month off! Well almost! This month we have a total of four hols. This Monday we got off for Prophet Mohammed's birthday (Muslim leader) and this Friday we get off for Good Friday!
Public Hols are not days to laze away under a shady mango tree....no way, these days bring us together, take us to the beach and unites us with our greatest passion.....FEASTING! Thats right, garanteed this weekend there will be smoke rising from many a backyard as ground ovens are prepared for the lovo feast. Hours later the mouth watering aroma of cooked taro, fish, chicken, lamb shanks and palusami (taro leaves cooked in coconut milk with the option of a corned beef/mutton center) intoxicates the air.
Alot of work goes into the preparing of the LOVO (also called imu, umu in other parts of the Pacific). We are actually lucky at home coz our lovo pit is usable all year round.
In the old days (like when I was like knee high) all the food was delicately wrapped in coconut or banana leaves, but these days we use alumi foil....thats another thing, I don't think there are any other group of people who use alumi foil as much as the pacific islanders do. We are ever so gratefully (fully) to the inventor of that handy piece of item.
After the food is marinated, and wrapped, it is placed in the hot ground oven and covered. Three hours later.....Voila! A handsome feast!
Well that's what we will be doing this weekend! And when we are not feasting? well we will be at Church observing Easter, thats another thing we are passionate about....Jesus Christ.
P.S We get Monday off too.
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