Easter Island: holidays, events, climate
Regular events
Triathlon in Rano Raraku
In this competition, brightly painted men paddle through the lake, grab banana leaves from steles and run up the mountain. Then they swim back through the lake.
Religious festivals or holidays
Date | Holiday |
January 1 | New Year |
March April | Easter |
1st of May | Labor Day |
May 21 | Battle of Iquique Day |
June | Corpus Christi |
June 29 | Saint Peter and Paul |
15th of August | Ascension |
2nd Monday in September | national day of atonement |
September 18 | Independence Day, which is celebrated with parades over three days. |
September 19 | Army Day |
October 12 | Columbus day |
November 1 | All Saints Day |
December 8 | Immaculate Conception |
25 December | Christmas |
Festivals
Date | Firmly |
January February | Tapati Rapa Nui Festival: A kind of carnival with traditional dances, horse races, canoe races, handicrafts etc. The festival lasts about 10 days. |
July | Tokerau Singing Festival Haka Pei: Young men slide down grass-covered slopes on banana trees. |
Easter Island: climate
The climate is subtropical with an average temperature of 20.5 °C. January is the hottest month and July – August are the “coldest” months.
The climate is generally quite humid. The rainiest months are March – June.
The best time to travel to Easter Island
With regard to the climate, the whole year is a good time to travel. Because of the South American summer vacation in January and February, the island is then heavily overcrowded, so you should avoid traveling at this time.
Easter Island: Art History and Society
Architecture
Canoe-shaped house foundations, hare paenga, were approx. 10-15 m long, in exceptional cases up to 100 m. The walls and roof were supported by wooden posts that were anchored in the stone foundation. The roofs were made of reeds. Human-like lizard figures were placed at the entrances. The birdhouses, hare moa, are believed to have been graves.
Statues, Moai
On Easter Island, long platforms or plinths, also called ahu, were erected near the coast. The structures were strengthened by retaining walls. Statues were erected on this substructure, usually six, which were 4 to 20 meters high and could weigh up to 80 tons. The ahu were also burial places for the highest chiefs.
The statues, aringa ora, in German living faces, represented the ancestors. They were facing inland to give their mana, the holy power, to the residents of the villages.
A total of about 890 statues were counted on the island. Of these, around 290 have been rebuilt. Most of the statues were cut from yellow tuff from the Rano Raraku quarry. In the absence of metal, this was only done using stone tools. A few are also carved from basalt. The eyes of the statues were filled with coral or occasionally with black obsidian stones.
Similar figures can also be found on Ra’ivavae Island, the Austral Islands, and the Marquesa Islands and Tahiti, all of which are part of French Polynesia. Statues were erected on the Society Islands in honor of deceased chiefs.
Writing ko hau motu mo Rongorongo
Easter Island is the only island in the South Pacific on which there was a writing. However, this has not yet been deciphered. It is a pictorial font with inserted phonetic signs. The writing was scratched on wooden boards with shark teeth or obsidian tools. The youngest of its kind was scratched on oak planks of a British ship in the early 18th century. It is therefore assumed that the script was still used until the arrival of the Europeans.
The wooden boards must be rotated 180 degrees after each line while reading. Reading is from bottom left to right. Today there are about 21 of these described wooden panels, which are scattered in museums all over the world.
Although the script has not been fully deciphered to this day, there is still agreement that a part seems to be dedicated to the lunar calendar.
It is also believed that the tablets contain chants and myths, which the pictorial writing offers a memory aid. It is believed by experts that it is not a coherent script.
Social structure
As in the whole of Polynesia, the position in society was inherited, as was the chief post, Ariki. Ariki has the same meaning in Te Reo, the Maori language of New Zealand. Society was made up of family clans, Napa. The statues were created by highly trained artisans.
The production of the statues consumed a huge amount of wood and rope, which meant that canoes could no longer be built and the residents were trapped on the island.
Social decline
The power of the Ariki waned as soon as another religion emerged, such as B. the Vogelmannkult, Matato’a. The innovation was that power and position in society now had to be acquired. The creator of the world was called Makemake.
The first egg of the season that the sooty tern laid had to be found on Motu Nui Island. The competitors swam to the island after climbing down the steep cliffs of the main islands. They awaited the arrival of the birds, and whoever came back first with an egg was the winner. The title “Vogelmann” was due to him for one year.
Esoteric
The island has a special charm for esoteric.