ʻAva ceremony

The ava ceremony is one of the most important customs of the Samoa Islands. It is a solemn ritual in which a ceremonial beverage is shared to mark important occasions in Samoan society. The Samoan word ava (pronounced with the glottal stop) is a cognate of the Polynesian word kava associated with the kava cultures in Oceania. Both terms are understood in Samoa. The ʻava ceremony within Samoan culture retains the same ritual pattern with slight variations depending on the parties involved and the occasion. It always includes speeches and oratory and the formal drinking of 'ava, including women if they are part of the ceremony, with special attention paid to precedence in drinking order. One of the most important occasions for the 'Ava ceremony is during the bestowal of matai chiefly titles. The Samoan word for both the plant and the drink manufactured therefrom is ava (pronounced with the glottal stop), although at some distant date before the letter k was dropped from the Samoan language it was termed kava by which name it is universally recognised. The drop of the letter k is often replaced by the glottal stop in Samoan. According to Lynch (2002), the reconstructed Proto-Polynesian term for the plant, *kawa, was derived from the Proto-Oceanic term *kawaʀ in the sense of a "bitter root" or "potent root [used as fish poison]". It may have been related to reconstructed *wakaʀ (in Proto-Oceanic and Proto-Malayo-Polynesian) via metathesis. It originally referred to Zingiber zerumbet, which was used to make a similar mildly psychoactive bitter drink in Austronesian rituals. Cognates for *kawa include Pohnpeian sa-kau; Tongan, Niue, Rapa Nui, Tuamotuan, and Rarotongan kava; and Hawaiian awa. In some languages, most notably Māori kawa, the cognates have come to mean "bitter", "sour", or "acrid" to the taste. The 'Ava Title is a name or names bestowed only on certain matai chiefs who also have an 'Ava Title inseparable from their chiefly title. The bestowal of an 'Ava title usually takes place at the same time a matai title is bestowed.