Raid International Service

> Custom and habits
The origin complexes of the Malagasy people created various and particular habits. In spite of the many ethnic configurations and concepts of clans, the country conveys the same language and the belief in the power of the late ancestors is widespread through all the island.

Although the traditional belief expresses the existence of only one God, omnipresent and omnipotent carrying the name of "Andriamanitra" (the Scented Lord) or that of "Andriananahary" (the Creative Lord), it is rather towards the divinized ancestors or "Razana" that its worship will go. The worship of the ancestors is a celebration of the "Life science", because the late ones are carrying being able and are defenders of the life on ground, material as much as spiritual. Each ancestor keeps his family individuality and his fasteners. Its capacity is revealed through "crowned Commands" which dictate the political, cultural, medical organization of the family or the > community.

The belief considers that certain disasters such as the accidents, the diseases are the consequences of a failure to the worship of the ancestors. It is a justice inflicted by those to have violated a "Fady" (Taboo), for example. With each special occasions marking the life (construction of a house or a dugout, a marriage, etc...), the "Razana" will be consulted, called upon. Animals (chickens, zebus) or food (rhums, honey, etc...) will then be offered in sacrifice or drinkings. To quote at which point this practice is anchored deeply in all the social layers, the inaugural flight of the Boeing 747 of the national company Air Madagascar gave place to a sacrifice of zebu in order to ensure long life the apparatus like its passengers.

Apart from the traditional religion, Madagascar counts approximately 50% of Christians who left again themselves through four (04) large churches like 200' 000 Moslems, especially established on the West coast and in the capital.

Death, for the Malagasy traditional religion, mark the passage of the row human being to the row of ancestor (Razana). This last will dominate of another world the new generations which will fear it and will honour it in their turn. Three (03) important ceremonies accompany death. They are the funeral, the "Famadihana" (exhumation or reversal) and the sacrifices. Of course, the forms which these ceremonies can take are different according to the areas and we will quote only some of these practices.

Center

Antananarivo

Alahamadibe
Famorana

Fianarantsoa

Volambe Tohaka
Rivoekembahoaka (exhumation or reversal)
Havoria
Savika
To-laza ou voapora ou Fora-zaza

South

Sorombe Ampasimanoro Firanga
Tonitany

North

Id-ul-filtr (celebrates Moslem)
Fisehagna
Fanompoam-be
Famodiagna varavargna
Fanamborana Dady Moasy
Ziara
Tsanga tsainy
Fagnabigniafgna varavaragna
Malidi nabi ou Fanodidy (celebrates Moslem)
Vangy Tany Manintsy

East

Petra-dango
Santa-bary
Joro vinany
Tsabo raha
Tody trano manara ou Dify Tranomanara
Famoahan-jaza andohan’omby ou Tody saotra
Joro Orana ou Joro Asarabe ou Asarabe Alakaosy ou Joro Vavarano
Sambatra
Malalajoro tanàna
Zara-fihinanana

Ouest

Fitampoha (Royal Bath)

>Arts and cultures
H ira gasy, spectacles popular of music, dance and of tales are a tradition of the high plateaus. The representation is given by troops made up of 25 people on the whole including eighteen men and of seven women. It acts, in fact, of a competition for the best costumes and the most original spectacle, more moving or most captivating. Gasy will hira starts with a kabary, speech generally déclamé by old respected. Members of the troop illustrate then the message of the kabary by songs and lifting dances accompanied by the spindly music of the trumpets and clarinets. The flute, the whistle and various string instruments lend their sonorities to the dances and the traditional music. The accordions, still used, testify for their part to the French heritage. Paul Bert Rahasimanana, or Rossy who is probably the most famous musician of Madagascar. Rammed, Rebika, Tearano, Tiana, Mahaleo, Njava, Tarika, as well as the groups Fenoamby and The Justin Vali Trio mix with the modern influences with the traditional repertory.

The Malagasy literature appeared about 1850, when the Raombana historian wrote 8.000 pages telling the reign of Ranavalona I. the literature and poetry modern developed in the Thirties and Forties, in particular under the feather of Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo. One can also quote Jean Ndema, Rakotonaivo, Rainifihina Jessé, Emilson D. Andriamalala and, more recently, Raharimanana.

The oral tradition of the “ohabolana” gave birth to many proverbs and sayings wise and spiritual, with the image of this one: “We do not amuse with the caimans: our flesh is succulent.

> Places of interest
Antananarivo (Tana)
If it lost a significant part of its charm with the dismantling of the zoma (the old large market of Friday), “Tana” deserves the turning. The high ones and narrow houses with exhausted red bricks, the tiled roofs of terra cotta and with the balconies and wood shutters are drawn up on the 12 hills which form the capital. The most animated places are Araben' ny Fahaleovantena (“avenue of Independence”) and theHigh one (Antaninarenina). The Andravoahangy market and the Pochard market are the places of predilection of the cabinetmaker, stone masons, embroiderer and other craftsman. The botanical and zoological park of Tsimbazaza is the occasion to observe several species of these sympathetic nerves animals which are the lemurs, but also brushes, will hérons, crocodiles and tortoises. It also shelters a large variety of palm trees and endemic plants. The ruins of Rova, the old palate of the Ranavalona Queen 1st, destroyed in 1995, overhang Antananarivo.

National park of Ranomafana
With its 12 species of lemurs, 96 varieties of birds, its geckos, chameleons and frogs with profusion, this national park of the surroundings of Fianarantsoa (in the center of the country and the south of Tana) will allure the amateurs of fauna and flora. Spend one day to you to walk there and you are extremely likely to see makis with russet-red belly, propithèques with diadem or makis with red face. Perhaps the night, you will have the occasion to see woolly, nimble and savage avahi, of which some will make the way to you to obtain a banana. Orchises, tree ferns, giant palm trees and bamboos supplement the visit of this Eden.

National park of Isalo
This superb open park in 1999, close to Andringitra, less attended and quite as beautiful, threat to supplant the park of Isalo more and more.
This park alternates flat grassy and sandstone cornices eroded by the wind and water until creating a tormented relief where orbits, ears, noses and nozzles curiously seem to take shape. Strolls one day to the one week trekking, the park of Isalo (to pronounce “ichal”) is ideal for the walking between April and October. Sakalava tombs, canyons, river of sand, natural swimming pool, cave of the Portuguese (it would have been used as refuge with Portuguese sailors in XVIe century), oases and exceptional rock formations are with the program of this park of 81.
000 hectares which you will find to approximately 400 km in the south-west of the capital.

Sainte-Marie island
Quietude envies, of bathe and white sand? The Sainte-Marie island awaits you. In the east of the Large island, this long strip of land was at one time a den of pirates and pirates. Nowadays, its long sand beaches bordered of coconuts, its tropical forest and its coral reefs make an ideal vacation resort of it. Appreciated plungers, Sainte-Marie is also the place of an extraordinary appointment: that of the hundreds of humpback whales which come to couple themselves or put to with it low between July and September.

Reserve of Tsingy de Bemahara
Classified by UNESCO on the list of the world inheritance of humanity, the astonishing rock formations of Tsingy de Bemahara cover a surface of more than 150.000 hectares, which makes of it the vastest natural site protected from the Large island.
Not easily penetrable, these karstic reliefs point towards the skies an impressive maze of sharp-edged needles.
Only shade in the table: the “stone forests” of Tsingy are difficult access for the independent travellers.