The Gawai Burong process and procedures

The Gawai Burong process and procedures
Preparations for the festival.

Aum gawai to discuss preparations for the gawai including fixing dates (nimpoh hari), allocation of communal farm (bumai bedandang) where a portion of the harvest is allocated for ceremonial needs and setting time to begin brewing of the rice wine (tuak) which usually occurs about a month before the festival itself.
Nutok bram tuak (pounding and preparing glutinous rice for making rice wine and flour for cakes & biscuits).
Ngaga raran (erecting of cooking rack). This is done in the afternoon, after completed preparing the rice wine. The feast chief waves a rooster along the gallery (ruai) to announce the time to build the cooking racks for the rice, usually at the upper landing place of the longhouse. Gendang rayah music is played three times per round in the longhouse during the construction of the rack.
Ngerendam beras (soaking of the glutinous rice). This is done about 6 p.m. after the feast chief waves a rooster to announce the event accompanied by gendang rayah music which is played five times per round in the house during this event.
Ngelulun asi (Roasting of the rice in the bamboo). This is done in the afternoon of the next day, after the feast chief waves his rooster and make announcement, he leads a group of elders carrying offerings (piring), which he placed in a special platform called duran. After placing the offerings properly, he will sit near them until all the work at this stage is finished.
Sabong gawai (festival cockfighting) is performed at the feast chief’s open-air platform (tanju). Several fights are conducted there and it will be continued elsewhere on nearby clearing if the participants are still enthusiastic.
Makai pagi (morning meal) are done to initiate the beginning of the festivals and are done along the gallery (ruai) of the longhouse.
Ngelumpang asi (taking the rice out of the bamboo) is done after the morning meal with the feast chief waving his rooster making the announcement. The rice is taken out of the bamboo and placed on a large mat where it is mixed with yeast (ragi) to start the fermentation process of wine making. The rice are then placed inside large jars and its top covered with clean clothes. Gendang rayah music is played three times per round. After this, other preparations take place like making of rice flour cakes, preparing domestic livestock for the next two weeks. The festival chief also organise a group of people to collect mandatory items from the jungle or river to be used for the offerings (piring) and these are:
Pisang Jait (wild banana fruit),
Engkudu & trong fruits,
Lengki palm leaves & its shoot,
Banjang palm leaves & its shoot,
Batak shoots, flowers of buot, tepus, engkenyang and others planted on the padi field,
Smoked gerama crabs, kusing bats and fish with white scales.
Ngambi Ngabang (sending out invitations) is done after materials of the offerings above are ready. A meeting is held by the feast chief to confirm the number of longhouse to be invited. Four trusted men are sent out to send the invitation carrying a number of strings with knots (temuku tali), where each knot represent a day before the guest are to attend the feast. The guest untie one knot every day to remind them of the feast day.
Meanwhile, a day before the big event, the women folks prepared the following items for the piring:
Cook white, yellow and black glutinous rice
Fry penganan iri buns
Cook sungkui cake
Cook hard boiled eggs
Cook ketupat rice
Fry popped rice (letup) and sago flour.