Feast

So up here in the village, they say it is their culture to have feasts for important life events: first catch of caribou, seal, etc. They also have them for remembering people that have passed on, birthdays, etc. Last year, Franklin (the roommate) and I threw a first catch feast since I had caught my first caribou.

This year, we didn't have a good reason, but thought it good/fun to throw another feast. The following was our menu.

• Wheat Bread x 5 loaves (me)
• White Bread x 2 loaves (me)
• Cinnamon Bread x 3 loaves (me)
• Banana Bread x 3 loaves (me)
• Pumpkin Bread x 3 loaves (Cindy)
• Yup'ik Fried Bread (Helen)
• Caribou Stew (me)
• Chili (me)
• Salmon Chowder (Franklin)
• Chicken Noodle Soup (Franklin)
• Agutak (Cindy)
• Potato Salad (Franklin)
• Tuna Noodle Salad (me)
• Kool Aid (Franklin)
• Jello (Cindy)
• Pie x 4 (me)
• Spaghetti (Franklin)
• Fruit Salad (Augusta)
• Baked Salmon x 6 filets (Franklin)

We had about as many feasters as last year, probably about 75 (a tenth of the village?). There were a lot of men out hunting for geese and women out ice fishing. So, I guess that we had a pretty good turn out. We had enough food, perhaps we had too much soup. Probably could have gone with three pots and been safe. Otherwise everything else turned out right.

We told people that we had no reason for the feast and to their understanding we didn't. Most of them looked extremely perplexed that we would have a feast for no reason. However, we did have a reason or at least I did. A feast is a way to get out into the community, a way to interact with people. Salmon season is coming soon, maybe someone will invite us to come fishing with them.