Matahiti

(Maoa Roa), the ripening or completing of the year, a festival regularly observed in Huahine, Polynesia. Men, women, and children attended this festival, but the females were not allowed to enter the sacred enclosure. They held a sumptuous banquet annually, the time of which was regulated by the blossoming of reeds. When the prayers were finished at the marae, and the banquet ended, each individual returned to his home or family marwe to offer special prayers for the spirits of departed relatives, that they might be liberated from the po, or state of night, and ascend to rohutunoanoa, the mount Meru of Polyfesia, or return to this world, by entering into the body of one of its inhabitants.