Alahamady Be

The celebration of the Malagasy New Year is held annually in March. Locals dance and revel to traditional music. ‘Alahamady’ roughly translated means the first day of the Malagasy month and the celebration last for two days. Each year, the celebration travels the 12 hills and part of the ceremony includes a ‘nofon-kena mitam-pihavanana’ (the piece of meat which keeps family ties) whereby the meat of the local domestic cattle, the zebu, is shared amongst the people each other as a sign of keeping the ‘fihavanana’, meaning kinship or friendship between beings, both physical and spiritual, which is one of the cores of Malagasy society.