The Bastile Day Fete
p. 25 · Read in the full issue
Disappointing
From Our Own Correspondent
Papeete, May 30.
OUR island Agricultural Fair this year is to be an occasion of major inter est. But the old and somewhat cele brated, Bastile Day Fete is, I believe, as dead as Julius Caesar.
Our younger generation of Tahitians look upon such artificial revivals of native dances and costumes as out moded. In former times, the celebra tions of that nature were spontaneous and represented customs which were in being.
During later years, the festivities have resembled Rider Haggard’s “She” in her attempts to bring the mummy of her antique lover to life.
The chorus singing this year was ghastly; the dances were without any real verve; the costumes were modelled after the Hawaiian grass-skirt seen in Hollywood honky-tonks. The town hood lums. tourists and miscellaneous specta tors got gloriously “tight” for eight days, and everybody praised Allah when the affair was over.
“Life is real, life is earnest,” these days, in the South Sea —as elsewhere: and the Agricultural Fair represents that serious and utilitarian purpose which befits present-day conditions.