Hospitality is a virtue held throughout Madagascar. There is a legend about villagers who had once declined to give a stranger water, and their entire village was sacrificed to fires. No matter the financial situation, it is an unquestionable duty to offer food and drink to guests.

Family is central to Malagasy life with children being the primary focus and purpose of marriage. Women are considered to be the principle driving force of the household, regardless of whether or not they work outside of the house. The Malagasy family exemplifies the ideals of an extended family including distant cousins and deceased ancestors. It is a widely-held belief that their ancestors possess magical powers.

The Malagasy staple is rice, which is eaten with a variety of sauces, meat, vegetables and spicy seasoning. Traditional dishes include “ro” (beef or pork marinated in vinegar, water and oil, then cooked with leaves, onion, pickles and other vegetables and seasoned with hot peppers), “ravitoto” (meat and leaves cooked together) and “romazava” (leaves and pieces of beef and pork browned in oil). Many dishes are accompanied by achards, a hot, pickled vegetable curry. The seafood on the coast is excellent and cheap, and you can eat a range of tropical fruits such as pineapples, lychees, mangoes and bananas most of the year round.

Malagasy drinks include “litchel” (an aperitif made from litchis), “betsa” (fermented alcohol) and “toaka gasy” (distilled from cane sugar and rice). Around Ambalavao and Fianarantsoa they produce several excellent wines, including a greyish-coloured one appropriately enough called “gris”. Non-alcoholic drinks include “ranon ’ampango” or “ranovola” (made from burnt rice) and local mineral waters. Coffee is of good quality and more popular than tea. The local THB or Three Horses Beer is also very good.

Around 50% of Malagasy follow traditional religions. The Malagasy regard the dead with reverence, and give the afterlife as much importance as the present; the dead play a role in the life of the living rarely seen in other cultures. Mourners carry out elaborate rituals at funerals, and if it is deemed that the dead are displeased, further rituals are enacted to appease them. The most famous of these is the famadihana, or turning of the bones, when the dead are exhumed, entertained, talked to and reburied with gifts and new shrouds..

March: Alahamady Be - Malagasy New Year
April/May: Santabary - first rice harvest
June: Fisemana - A ritual purification ceremony of the Antakarana people
June to September: Famadihana - Literally the “turning of the bones” these reburial ceremonies are held usually during August and September.
June to December: Sambatra - Circumcision festivals held by most tribes between June and September and in November and December in the Southwest.

Ala volon-jaza:
When a baby’s hair is cut for the first time. Antambahoaka Grandparents form the south perform the haircutting ceremony. The child is put in a basin of water and be bathed. The Merina people have a similar ceremony however only the father’s parents if still alive may perform the ritual. After the hair cutting the family then sits to a meal of rice, zebu, milk and honey. Coins are put in a bowl and the older children in the family compete for the most amount of coins.

Tsangan-tsaina:
The Antankarana people perform this ceremony… two tall trees growing side by side near a noble family home are tied together. This symbolizes the unification of the Antakarana tribe, as well as connecting the past with the present and the living with the dead.

New Year’s Day (1 Jan)
Commemoration of 1947 Rebellion (29 Mar)
Easter (Mar/Apr)
Labour Day (May 1)
Ascension (40 days after Easter)
Whit Monday (50 days after Easter)
Independence Day (26 Jun)
Assumption (15 Aug)
All Saints’ Day (1 Nov)
Christmas Day (25 Dec)