Christmas on Ebeye

We were able to go over to Ebeye and watch some of their Christmas celebrations.  Marshallese on Ebeye take Christmas very seriously and celebrate it for days.  People gather at the churches and spend the entire day watching different dance groups come and perform for the celebration.  The people celebrate from early in the morning until well after midnight for several days straight and the main form of celebration centers around the dance groups which practice for months leading up to Christmas and travel from church to church on the island performing.  We were able to go over with a group of people and watch one of the performances.  The choreographed dance lasted for nearly an hour and a half and included a group of around 100 people.  It was truly a sight to behold and a very unique cultural experience.  We were very thankful to be able to go and observe this Marshallese tradition.  Check out the video and pictures we captured below.

This is a one minute video from the nearly hour and a half of dancing.  The guy playing the piano hardly got a break from singing and playing the entire time!  It was very impressive.

Here is a picture of the singer and some of the dancers in the background.  This group was dressed in red.  After their performance we went outside and there was another group in blue ready to come in and perform. 

Here is a picture during one of the dances.  The dancers were very energetic and had spent months preparing for the celebrations.  Our seats were right up front and when we came into the church they gave us necklaces and fans and introduced us to the church.  We didn't need any special attention, but they gave us the best seats and treated us like important guests.  

Here is a picture down the sanctuary.  After the dancing was over the people threw candy out into the crowd.  There was more candy flying around that sanctuary than I could believe and we had to watch out because bags of suckers and things like that were raining down on us!  

It was really neat to be a part of this tradition.  We had never seen anything like this before as this was very unique to the Marshall Islands.