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Most of the ethnic groups listed as Kadazandusuns love gatherings. They enjoy family gatherings,reunions and cultural celebrations such as the harvest festival. They will take any excuse together and celebrate.And this can include birthdays, seven days after the birth of an infant, one month birthday called ‘papakan tanak’ or feeding the child and ‘popolintuun’ or allowing the infant to go outside of the house.

 But perhaps one of the grander feasts is one for extended families or clans. The ‘clan feasts is called Moginakan’ or Moginakan’, depending on which tribe you originate from. But the meaning is the same; roughly translated it is ‘big feast’. This feast is held once every five years after the Harvest Festival, which in the past was not actually in May.

 Harvest festival was after the harvesting was done, which was not during the same month in every district or villages. During the event, an opulent family will set a date for the moginakan.A member of the family will set out words about the moginakan to their kith and kin throughout the villages.

 The preparation for the feast will start from as early as a month in advance. They will collect fire woods for the kitchen, collect more bamboo for making water buckets called ‘rugut’ and drinking vessels called ‘suki’, generally all the items needed for big feast. They will also start pounding rice to be made into rice brew called tapai. By the time the tapai making session is done, there will be dozens of large jars filled with fermented rice standing against the wall.

 The relatives will start coming in from as early as three days before. They will bunk in with relatives living in that particular village or further back in time, they will sleep at the common room of the longhouse, outside of the family rooms. On the eve of the feast, they will start slaughtering livestock such as pig and chicken for the feast. The women will start cooking rice and the meat. The revelry will actually start then, and tapai will start to be served.

 The day itself will dawn with festivities.There will be eating and drinking and the beating of the gongs will commence. By that day, all the relatives from the four corners of the state will have gathered. This day however is not just a gathering. It is a significant day where all relatives come together and catch up with the news. In the olden  days trekking from a 10 kilometres away village is a big deal due to the lack of transportation. So news about each other is always scarce.

 It is also a day of  ‘ponuturan’ or knowing who one’s relatives are. An elder is usually appointed, sometimes self-appointed, as a’narrator’ of who in the extended family.Usually narrator is a woman and she will start with ‘and so and so gave birth to so and so, who married so and so…’ or something to that effect.

 Newcomers to the clans, who are less than five years old ( of course) will be looked at and passed around at this time. A rather unpleasant experience, for one ends up with sore cheeks to being pinched (supposed to be affectionately) and smelling of betel nutchew.

 The moginakan is also a day for the ‘modsuaw’ or appeasing of the spirits of people beheaded by the family. In the olden days, warriors take the head of their enemies and bringthem home as trophy. The head is then cured and hung on the longhouse rafters or they are kept in the ‘loft’ a small space made just before the roof.These heads are not just kept there to disintegrate with age though. Every five years during the moginakan, the family will take down the heads and ‘feed and entertain’ them. The process is carried out through a bobolian or shaman. There is a special ceremony in this pratice.

 During the moginakan, the spirits taken care of by the family or ‘gompi’ will also be fed, if they do have these spirits. Animists usually believe in the spirits of nature, and some ‘keep’ spirit’ familiars. And these spirits are fed during the moginakan, being one of the family. And this is another process where bobolians are useful. All in all the feast last for seven days. By the end of the week, most relatives will be quite familiar with each otherand they will vow to meet again soon which could be five years afterwards, during the moginakan.

 Moginakan  has evolved with the coming of monotheism. In the 1960’s it has evolved to family gatherings and reunions, during the harvest festival or Christmas celebrations. During that time ponuturan is also carried out and some youngsters will jot it down in a notebook. Moginakan, however is no longer actively observed by the community. The Kadazandusun Paramount Kitingan Leader Datuk Seri Panglima Joseph Pairin Kitingan has expressed his concern about this eventuality.

“This is a sad turn of event as the family institution can be eroded. There may come a time when an elderly dies and is interred without a family member present,” he says.According to him, no matter how modern the community has become, the traditional family values should be maintained.“The modern world has given us means to stay in contact with one another the telephone. And distance is not an excuse, we have various modes of transportation ,” he shares.Pairin, who is a deputy Chief Minister and Minister of Rural development, was in Kg. Karanaan Tambunan for a Monginakan with his family recently.

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