Ava Ceremony - Lent Mass (Written 3/1/06)

Chanel College Students performing Ava Ceremony

Another week, another special mass! But today we not only had a mass, we had our first Ava ceremony of the year. A Marist father visitor from Fiji, Michael Fitzgerald, arrived at Chanel last night and the school put together an ava ceremony for him. It was an interesting split for the day – classes from 8 to 10:30, then a break and then everyone went up to the FaleSamoa for the ceremonies.

Unlike the ava ceremonies I experienced during training, there were no matais at this ceremony. Instead, some of the year 13 boys acted in the role of the matais and talking chiefs. It was quite interesting to see these young men who are so far away from becoming actual matais speaking in the same way that normal matais do. It felt very traditional, it was just a surreal experience after seeing so many adults do it only a few months ago. Father Fitzgerald was use to this type of ceremony since it seems to be a Pacific island tradition, but he did say that he was quite impressed by the confidence that the kids involved in the ceremony showed – like they knew exactly what they were doing. I was also impressed by the confidence of the students in the ceremony – they didn’t look nervous at all.

After the ava ceremony, we transitioned into the lent mass. I have to have the holiest front porch in all of Samoa! While the opening mass – led by the Archbishop – was completely in Samoan, this service – led by Father Fitzgerald – was completely in English so I got a little more out of it compared to the first one. The service was very traditional and at the end, anyone who wanted to get the mark of the cross on their forehead in ash were welcomed to do so. Even though the whole program started at 11am we did not get done until 1pm – it was a long combo service, let me tell you. Then, of course we let the kids go ‘early’. So another day in the life of the Chanel College volunteer is done, the 40 days of Lent have begun. Our next big mass should be Easter – wonder who are guest speaker for that one will be? Stay tuned!