Gawai Dayak

Annual thanksgiving festival in Sarawak, Malaysia and West Kalimantan, Indonesia. In Malaysia it is celebrated as a public holiday and marks the end of the rice harvesting season. ‘Gawai’ means ‘festival’ and ‘Dayak’ is the collective name for some Malaysian Indigenous groups. The festival, for all ages, opens on the evening of 31 May and typically involves ceremony, music, partying, dancing, poetry, feasts and other rituals and activities.