by Michelle Amba – EM TV News, Port Moresby
The annual Kongar, or Pig Festival, will once again be staged in Warakar, North Waghi in the Jiwaka Province commencing on September 14.
Chairman of the festival, Jack Kulam, said this year’s festival will bigger than that of the past two years.
The week-long festival will include cultural dances, the initiation of young men and women, and a lot of pigs.
The cultural significance of Kongar or Pig Festival is predominantly as thanksgiving type ceremony, a way of displaying one’s wealth in the Waghi area.
It is regarded as the most significant ceremony hosted by a single tribe, giving them the opportunity to show opposing tribes their respective wealth through the humble pig.
This year’s festival will coincide with the opening of the first ever Cultural Training Centre in the region.
