The Kamusi Project
New Years Eve in Tanzania. Do you celebrate?
Submitted by Sue-in-USA on 7 December 2006 - 12:21pm
I would be interested in learning more about whether (and how) New Years Eve and New Years Day are celebrated in different areas of Tanzania. Are there traditional activities (such as parties or gatherings?) on New Years Eve and New Years Day? Do workers have a holiday from their jobs on or around this time? Do you have any personal stories to share about New Years Eve/Day customs in Tanzania to help me understand more about the Tanzanian culture? I am very interested in your stories. Asante!
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English
Swahili
Mwaka Mpya
Constantine,
Mwaka Mpya (New Years) is as celebrated in Tanzania as much as any other place on the planet. People view it as a new beginning (as always) and usually is spent with family and close friends.
I believe it is a public holiday and people do not go to work. Tanzanians like to eat meat and drink beer (not generalizing of course, though most would agree), hence during Mwaka Mpya people at the coast go to the beach with family, kids, aunts and uncles, spouses, work colleagues, friends, and so on. They have a lot of food and a variety of drinks, soft for kids, and alcoholic beverages for those drinking adults.
The interior has different tribes and each has different ways to celebrate, usually dancing and what not. However the underlying aspect is standard throughout the country. Family, life and fun.
The greatest story I have of New Year's was the 2004/2005 New Years where I spent it with my cousins in Tabora (North Western Tanzania), this is where my mother and her family are from. We had a bunch chickens and goat meat the whole day. Sat with our grand parents to listen to their stories (for the millionth time), but it was special times.
Constantine.
Mwaka Mpya Kijijini
I've been in Tanzania several times on New Year's Eve, and have many fond memories.
One year I was working on Mafia island, and several dozen people took boats out to a sandbar in the middle of Chole Bay that only exists at low tide. Fortunately, the tide was low enough starting about 11:30pm. The experience of being in a convoy of small mashua in absolute darkness, until the lead boat bumped into the sandbar and we all climbed onto dry "land" was a memory in itself. Then we off-loaded wood, snacks, and beverages, and soon had a roaring fire, music provided by local musicians, and dancing until the tide rose at about 3am and we all climbed back on the boats and sailed into the New Year. I'm not sure that anyone was particularly paying attention to the stroke of midnight, but we all had a great time.
Another year I was at a fairly small venue in Iringa Mjini, where Remi Ongala was performing live. His music was great, the party went late, and it was an honor to have the chance to meet such a great artist.
But the best New Year's ever had to have been the night of Y2K, in Isimikinyi village, in the highlands halfway between Iringa and Mbeya. Although there was an official party at the secondary school 2 km away, several friends and I chose to stay at my house, on top of a hill. All the surrounding hills were visible beneath the light of a billion stars (moonrise that night was 3am). We had a campfire, told stories, and whistled back and forth to other groups on other hills. We had the BBC on a small shortwave radio, and listened every hour as the millennium began in another time-zone, closer and closer to East Africa. Finally it was our turn, and the whistling back and forth among the hills got more and more excited. We shook a bottle of South African bubbly, popped the cork, and finally heard the thud of the cork returning to earth about 10 seconds later, after we'd had a chance to comment about how strange it was that we hadn't heard the cork land. We stayed up for a few more hours, sharing laughter around the campfire and whistles with the other hilltops, until people drifted to sleep one by one, the fire burned down to ashes, and the new century enveloped all of Africa and started out across the Atlantic.
Thanks for asking!