Traditions of Hanga Roa
The village of Rapa Nui, with moai statues, the Tapati festival and an umu earth oven.
Hanga Roa is the only town of Easter Island, Rapa Nui, in the Pacific, 3,500 kilometres from Chile. The Rapa Nui people built nearly a thousand moai, stone statues, between about 1250 and 1500, and keep their language and festivals. Tapati Rapa Nui, in February, is a two-week festival of sport, song and dance.
Tapati and the moai
Two clans compete, each with a queen, in contests such as the haka pei, a race sliding down a slope on banana trunks, and in dance, carving and body painting. The moai honour ancestors and face inland. The birdman cult, tangata manu, with its yearly race to bring back a sooty tern egg, is remembered at Orongo.
At the table
An umu, a pit oven of hot stones, cooks fish, chicken, sweet potato and taro under banana leaves, for feasts. Ceviche of tuna, empanadas with tuna, and po'e, a sweet pudding of pumpkin and banana, are local. Haraoa is a sweet bread. Fresh tuna is caught from boats.
Signature traditions of Hanga Roa
Also part of it, and being written: Tapati (The festival.), Moai (The statues.), Tangata manu (The cult.), Umu (The oven.).
A trail idea for Hanga Roa
- Rano Raraku See the quarry.
- Tongariki See the line of moai.
- Orongo See the ceremonial village.
Written by the EveryParampara desk with AI assistance. Opening hours, markets and festival dates change; check locally before travelling. Customs differ from place to place and family to family. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.
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