Yulianus Irwan
The weather on the countryside of Bajawa was cloudy. Me and driver Mus have been ready to pick up Steve and Liz (USA) from their room to go for breakfast at Heaven’s Door Resto belongs to Manulalu.
We decided to eat breakfast on the balcony of the building where it is headed to a beautiful panorama of Mount Inerie and the surrounding areas including some villages on its foot.
Bena, the place where we have planned to go is usually clearly seen from the restaurant but this time it wasn’t because of the fog started to come earlier than what I expected. However, our visit to Bena this time was very special because the people were still celebrating reba.
I have never seen people celebrating reba in my whole career as a tour guide in Flores before. This was a very exciting moment for me and therefore, I proposed Steve and Liz to get involved in the ceremony which is about three hours.
We actually didn’t intend to visit Bena for reba, it was just a coincidence. We should have not been there if we had chosen to do a round trip that is expected to start earlier but since Ende airport was reopen, we were lucky to be able to visit Bena during the special day adding to our wonderful journey of 7 days and 6 nights Flores trip.
Bena was our first stop of that day before driving for about 4 hours to Ruteng. We tried to calculate and consider a few things before decided to stay.
It was a bit hard to decide at the beginning due to the longer drive ahead of us but the enthusiasm of the villagers who were so welcome with our attendance made us decided to get involved in the ceremony. Moreover, one of the women from Bena gave Steve a traditional sarong to wear during the ceremony. With no hesitation, we blended into the crowd under the tenth located in the middle of the village.
The priests from local parish church were ready to lead the mass, the choir group starting to sing a local language song accompanied by combination traditional and modern musical instruments of string bass, flute, piano, and ukulele and then there performed the traditional famous ja’i dance whose performers all wore beautiful traditional outfits (watch the video below).
Everyone was on their feet indicating the mass was about to start.
The dancers wear the traditional outfits belong to Bajawa during reba in Bena
As informed at the main office, a mass is part of the ceremony of reba within three days ritual starting from December 27 every year and we were there on the second day of the ceremony.
As it is further explained, reba is a thanksgiving ceremony of the successful harvest and hoping for the blessing and more harvest on the upcoming new planting. Besides for thanksgiving, reba is also a precious moment for family members of each clan (from nine clans) in Bena to be reunited. As this ceremony is held annually, most of the people in Bena from any generation from far distance were coming home to celebrate reba and so they maximized it to exchange family program for the new year and also to evaluate the previous program whether it all goes as planned or not.
Since most of the people are catholic, they also combine their traditional ritual with a catholic mass led by a priest and afterward they continued with the offerings to the ancestors through megalithic stones as many found here in Bena.
As we moved to the next stop in Aimere, an hour drive from Bena, Steve and Liz could join a photoshoot with the dancers who they really admired for their wonderful performances during the mass.
beautiful picture of dancers with our beloved guests Steve and Liz
