Festival “Lia Eruk” Matotonan Village, Siberut Island, Mentawai

“Lia is a ceremony that is carried out limited to the nuclear or nuclear family, involving sikerei, family members, and people from other tribes. Implementation of lia in the Mentawai cultural tradition is carried out if someone is sick, naming children, marriage, making canoes and so on. In a lia ceremony, the Mentawai people usually sacrifice several pigs and chickens to be slaughtered to symbolise the lia ceremony. One of the lia ceremonies is the Lia E’eruk ceremony. Lia E’eruk is a traditional ritual ceremony of the Mentawai people which aims to keep tribe members away from illness and misfortune. E’eruk, which means “good”. Lia E’eruk also aims to ask good things from the ancestral spirits to protect, guard, and provide peace for the tribe members while they are still alive. Upara Lia E’eruk is performed by sikerei as an intermediary to communicate with ancestral spirits. In the Lia E’eruk ceremony, the Mentawai people sacrifice several pigs and chickens. At the end of the Lia E’eruk ceremony, the tribe members go hunting in the forest; after getting the game, they divide it equally among the tribe members. Lia E’eruk’s ceremony ended”