The Cabinet has approved a proposal by the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) to allow each of the nation’s 14 officially recognized Aboriginal tribes to declare a tribal holiday, Minister of the Interior Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) said yesterday.
Jiang said that under the newly amended administrative regulation regarding holidays proposed by the ministry and approved by the Executive Yuan, “each of the Aboriginal tribes can choose a traditional festival day as a tribal holiday — which means that each of the tribes will have a different holiday.”
The newly revised regulation will take effect next year, the minister said.
Most Aboriginal groups welcomed the decision, but questioned the practicality of the policy.
“The idea behind setting holidays for each tribe is to allow Aborigines who work outside of their villages to go home and take part in traditional festivities,” said Wutu Micyang, an Amis who is also the spokesman for the Taiwan Aboriginal Communities Action Alliance.
“However, most traditional Aboriginal festivities last more than one day; for example, the Amis Harvest Festival could go on for three days to a week,” Wutu said. “So having only one day off actually doesn’t mean much.”
It would also be difficult for each tribe to pick one holiday, Wutu said.
“Amis communities, for example, are like ancient Greek city states, with each village having its own festival day,” Wutu said. “So, though we all have a harvest festival, different villages would have it on different dates from July through September.”
Watan Diro, spokesman for the preparatory Office for the Sediq National Assembly, agreed with Wutu, saying there are no set dates for traditional Sediq holidays.
“There are festivities for spring, summer, autumn and winter, but our ancestors did not use calendars. Instead, festival days are decided in accordance with changes in the season as well as the weather — it would be hard to set an exact date for a festival,” he said.
Watan also questioned if such holidays would be meaningful or just symbolic.
“Say, if there’s a company with employees from 14 different tribes, would the boss allow each of the employees to take a break on 14 separate days?” he said.
However, Smangus Community Council secretary Lahuy Icyeh, an Atayal, welcomed the new policy and said that different Atayal communities may be able to agree on a date through negotiations.
Chi Ming-hsi (杞明錫), head of the Council of Indigenous Peoples’ planning department, said the council had started in August the process of selecting tribal holidays for each Aboriginal tribe and had come to some decisions.
Tribal holidays for the Atayal, Bunun, Puyuma, Tao, Thao and Truku, Sakiraya and Sediq tribes have been decided, while time periods have been confirmed but the exact dates not yet determined for the Amis, Tsou and Rukai tribes, Chi said.
However, Chi said that some tribes — the Saisiat, Kavalan and Paiwan — have many festivals, and tribal leaders still have different opinions on which ones to pick.
The official Atayal holiday will be the Ancestral Spirit Worship Day held on the last Friday of August, the Bunun holiday will be the Hunting Festival on Dec. 31, the Tao holiday will be the Harvest Festival on the first day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar, the Thao holiday will be the Ancestral Spirit Day on Aug. 1, the Truku holiday will be Thanksgiving Day on Oct. 15, the Sakiraya holiday will be the God of Fire Festival on Oct. 1, the Sediq holiday will be the Harvest Festival on Dec. 31 and the Puyuma holiday will be the Harvest Festival on Dec. 31.
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