The rites of the New Year, or the “rising of the New Year” (thau ni sau) as it is called in Palokhi, may be regarded in some senses as a harvest celebration but they are, in fact, rites which mark the passage from one agricultural cycle into the next and which are wholly oriented towards the new season. The New Year itself is also described by a complementary term: the “descent of the land” (kau lau wae). Both these expressions, as I showed in my discussion of the agricultural calendar in Palokhi, describe the succession of agricultural seasons and their constituent features according to natural or “organic” rythms.

The rites of the “rising of the New Year”, or “descent of the land” consist of the following: “Soul calling at the descent of the land” (phau’ koela kau lau wae); “libations at the descent of the land” (khwae’ ta kau lau wae); and “wrist-tying at the descent of the land” (ki cy’ kau lau wae). All these rites may equally be described in terms of the “rising of the New Year” instead of the “descent of the land”.

An important condition on holding the rites of the New Year, however, is that all the households in the village must have performed their annual ‘au’ ma xae first. Many of the agrarian rites that are conducted in Palokhi are, as we have seen, the responsibility of individual households. This is what we might expect given the nature of domestic social organisation and the sociology of agricultural production in Palokhi. ‘Au’ ma xae, however, is a quintessentially domestic ritual intimately related to the ideology of kinship and the sociology of domestic group formation and fission. Nevertheless, the position of ‘au’ ma xae in the annual cycle of ritual activities — that is, as a mandatory ritual precondition for the New Year rites — marks it, at least in this particular regard, as a proper calendrical ritual and, therefore, as an integral part of the cycle of agrarian rites in Palokhi. This is significant because it is one more example of how not only ritual performances but also their structural positions in the sequence of annual rites periodically affirm the identification of households with the process of agricultural production.

When all the households in Palokhi have conducted their ‘au’ ma xae rituals, and have made the rice liquor and other preparations necessary for the New Year rites, the headman decides upon two consecutive days when they are to be held. The soul calling and libations are held on the evening of the first day while the wrist-tying is held on the following morning.

In the evening of the first day, the oldest married or widowed woman of each household performs the soul calling ritual. Although men may perform the soul calling, it is usually women who do so in Palokhi. Each woman carries a sling bag, into which a live chicken is placed, and goes to all the tracks which begin at the boundaries of the village with a “beating stick” (nau phau’ kra’). The stick is an implement which is, characteristically, used in soul calling rituals. It is a slim bamboo stick, just under a metre in length. It is split four ways half way down its length and has three notches mid-way on the remaining half. Bits of food are placed in the notches to entice the souls of people to return. The stick is beaten on the ground such that it rattles because of the free split ends. It is this that gives the ritual its name of phau’ koela (literally, “soul beating”). The prayer that is said in the ritual and the beating of the nau phau’ kra’ are accompanied by graphic gestures of collecting the souls and placing them into the bag. Unlike the soul calling prayers said during harvest rites in which the souls of rice are called back as well, the prayer is directed only to the souls of household members.

The prayer below, recited by the wife of the headman, is an example of the kinds of soul calling prayers which feature in the rites of the New Year. It begins onomatopoeically with a call which is invariably used in soul calling prayers in general. It is also the call to chickens when they are fed.

The prayer continues in this fashion at considerable length. At the end of the prayer, the woman goes on to the next track and repeats the prayer until the ritual has been conducted at all the tracks beginning at the boundaries of the village. She then returns to the house where all the household members assemble and have their evening meal.

Although this ritual is designed to recall the souls of household members, similar to the wrist-tying rites at harvest time, there is one difference. In this case wrist-tying is not performed. It is a general recall of the souls in preparation for the wrist-tying ceremony which is performed on the next day after the family has eaten its first meal in the morning. It is worth noting also that the prayer is wholly unambiguous on the communality of household members which it expresses through the conjunctive dau’ which relates all the members of the household together, and through the description of the proximity, indeed contiguity, of souls. To put it another way, the ritual brings together the individual members of the household in all their totality and, thus, “consolidates” them for the transition into the new agricultural season.

When all the households have had their meal, the festivities begin with various people beating gongs, clashing cymbals and singing in the open near the headman’s house. This goes on until the headman calls in the Palokhi villagers for the “libations at the descent of the land” (khwae’ta kau lau wae) made to the Lord of the Water, Lord of the Land and other tutelary spirits. The size of Palokhi houses makes it impossible for any house to accomodate all the people in the village and this is equally true for the headman’s house. For the “libations at the descent of the land”, what usually happens is that all the male heads of households congregate in the headman’s house while women and children stay outside. However, as with the Head Rite (the key features of which also distinguish this ritual), this is also a reflection of the fact that men dominate the ritual life of the community.

In the two New Year rites which I witnessed in 1981 (22–23 January) and 1982 (6–7 February), the serving of liquor during the “libations at the descent of the land” were done by Nae’ Kha, the headman’s son. The customary practice in Palokhi is that it is the male head of the household, his son-in-law or, occasionally, an unmarried son who serves the liquor on ritual and social occasions. The deviation from this practice in the headman’s house, however, should be understood in the light of the prospective succession of Nae’ Kha to the headmanship of Palokhi. Headmanship and the Head Rite, as we have seen, require the maintenance of a certain continuity of relationship with the Lord of the Water, Lord of the Land to enusre harmonious conditions for the on-going existence of the community. Nae’ Kha’s role in the “libations at the descent of the land” is, therefore, another aspect of the constitution of this continuity of ritual relationships integral to headmanship in Palokhi.

The organisation and structure of the “libations at the descent of the land” are identical to that of the Head Rite. Although the prayers are essentially similar in that they propitiate the Lord of the Water, Lord of the Land and request his protection, they differ somewhat in their temporal orientations. Whereas the prayers of the Head Rite are concerned with maintaining the status quo with the spirit of the domain in the agricultural year that is in progress, the prayer in the New Year rite is markedly proleptic; it is emphatic about the approaching year and, indeed, a general future.

The following is a prayer made by Tamu’ the headman.

Later in the prayer, the tutelary spirit of the domain is specifically asked to protect the village and house-holders from all that may endanger them. The form in which this request is expressed makes it clear that the community and its well-being are conceived of in terms of a solidarity and corporateness which are defined by the physical boundaries of houses, the village, and the domain.

The prayer continues in this manner and then ends with the standard formula which closes all prayers to the Lord of the Water, Lord of the Land and other tutelary spirits.

Once the libations and prayers have been made in the headman’s house, the headman and elders then proceed to the other houses to perform the ritual. This may be done on the same night or on the following day depending on how much time is left.

The “wrist-tying at the descent of the land” is performed on the following morning. In contrast to the libations in the headman’s house of the previous night, it is a domestic rite performed, in conjunction with the eating of the early morning meal, by parents. It is similar to the wrist-tying rituals that I have already described and its purpose is also the same. After the ceremony, other people in the village are then invited to eat. As I noted in Chapter IV, this goes on throughout the day with the Palokhi Karen moving from house to house to eat and to drink the rice liquor which is also offered at the same time.

One notable feature of the festivities on the second day of the New Year rites is the custom of displaying new married women’s skirts. This is done individually by house-holds, usually after the wrist-tying ceremony. The skirts are taken out and hung on bamboo poles which are the equivalent of clothes lines in Palokhi. Alternatively, they may be hung on the railings of verandahs. The overall effect is highly colourful, contributing to the festive air which characterises the rites of the New Year.

The Palokhi Karen explain the custom by saying that it makes the village look “beautiful” (ghe). This is undoubtedly true but, as we have seen, married women’s skirts possess a very particular symbolic value in Palokhi. While their red colour signifies a state of “procreativity”, a symbolic value which they share with men’s shirts, their special application to fruit trees on the other hand singles them out as a more powerful symbol of this state. Given the dominant symbolism of married women’s skirts, their use is entirely appropriate in the context of the New Year rites. Indeed, it is consistent with the general theme of the rites, that is, the consolidation of the community and renewal: the custom invokes the generative powers that are symbolised by married women’s skirts for the new agricultural year.

In this chapter, I have described several rituals within the corpus of annual agricultural rites in Palokhi, in order to illustrate their principal features and the particular forms in which language and symbolic activity are employed, to demonstrate their major importance in the religious life of the community, and to show more generally their significance in terms of the cultural ideology of the Palokhi Karen. These rituals are organised around ideas, concepts and categories which are key elements in the way that the Palokhi Karen conceive of agricultural production, especially swidden cultivation, and of their viability as a community. In the religious life of the Palokhi Karen, it is evident that both agricultural production and the existence of the community are treated as interrelated, on-going processes. At the heart of this ideological relationship lies what may best be regarded as a procreative model of society extended to agriculture.