03/04/2024
Manora Dance! Start of our holiday month.
A tradition in Nui's family is to arange Manora dances to make contact with the anscestors. Every five years it is huge, like this year.
Our house in Kantang.
We often call it Manora Garden 2.0 (maybe you can visit us here in the future?) is the central area: spirits can go in, tents are in the garden, a cookingteam is working in our outdoor kitchen and the dance area is next to the house.
Preparations took days.
Today and tomorrow is the performance. But a lot if work had to be done. Well, we ate ready! It is all about eating together, singing and dancing, cooking & cleaning, community & family, offerings, sharing food. It is also normal that the anscestors join and let us know that they are among us, as the spirits use familymembers to talk and greet!
Unesco:
Cultural Heritage of Humanity since 2021, origin Patthalung, Trang
"The Manora Dances are Nora is a lively and acrobatic form of dance theatre and improvisational singing from southern Thailand. Performances normally include a long oral invocation, followed by a presentation by a lead character who dances with vigorous and elaborate movements of the legs, arms and fingers. The performances are usually based on stories about the former lives of Buddha or about legendary heroes. An ensemble plays highly rhythmic and fast-paced music, with a traditional southern oboe providing the melody and strong rhythms produced by drums, gongs, cymbals and wooden clappers. The main Nora performers – whether male or female – wear colourful costumes with crowns or headdresses, beads, bird-like wings tied around the waist, ornate scarves, and swan tails that give them a bird-like appearance. Performers also wear long, metallic fingernails that curl out from the fingertips. Nora is a community-based practice with deep cultural and social significance for the people of southern Thailand. Performances use regional dialects, music and literature to reinforce cultural life and social bonds among local people. Over five hundred years old, Nora is performed in local community centres and at temple fairs and cultural events, and is passed on through training by masters in homes, community organizations and educational institutions."
