John Frum Day
Friday, 15th February 2008 by Alex Turnbull
Today on the island of Tanna, Vanuatu, in the South Pacific, it's John Frum Day.
Each year on the 15th of February, hundreds of people come to the tiny village of Lamakara from all over the island to celebrate their devotion to their deity, John Frum. These worshippers are described by anthropologists as members of a "cargo cult", and the John Frum cargo cult is one of the last in existence.
Many cargo cults arose in villages in the South Pacific during World War II, after hundreds of thousands of American troops descended upon the islands from the skies and seas, bringing with them a seemingly endless bounty of supplies and material goods. Hardly any wonder then that when the troops eventually left the islands, the locals began to pray for the return of the cargo.
The name 'John Frum' is sometimes considered a corruption of "John from (America)", and the cult believe that their saviour will eventually bring more cargo to this island, just as he did during WWII. Although it's possible that John Frum existed before the 40s, he would most likely have been described as a white man until black American GIs arrived, whereupon the cult's devotees very sensibly decided that in fact John Frum had been a black man all along.
Today in Lamakara, John Frum's followers will be dressing up as GIs, painting "U.S.A." on their chests, raising the American flag, building symbolic landing strips, carrying bamboo bayonets, and marching to the top of their local volcano, Yasur1.
Confusingly, the central tenet of John Fruminism2 is actually the rejection of Westernism - devotees are instead encouraged to return to traditional "kastom" (a local word for native Tannese customs).
For more info see these articles on the cult at Smithsonian Magazine, damninteresting.com and the BBC, as well as the obligatory Wikipedia pages on Vanuatu, Tanna, Cargo Cults and John Frum.
Thanks to Brett Hanover.
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"The world's most accessible volcano". ↩︎
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Yes, I made that term up. ↩︎
About the author
Alex has decided that his title will be Senior Vice President of Stuff.
Its a good job you kept that ‘Vanuatu’ stamp around.
They have this in Papau New Guinea as well. They believe white guys are their dead ancestors too.
I dont want to be a Doubting Thomas but how do you know the village you have pin pointed is Lamakara? It doesnt seem to be named on Maps or GE. Not questioning your impeccable research – just interested to know.
hhhmmmmm? so it’s a cult one day and then 2,000 years pass and it’s a religion. ain’t life grand?
Of course, by now that was yesterday…
@cookie monster, I actually wrote this article shortly after Feb 15th, last year, and unfortuantely I can’t find the map I used to pinpoint the village anymore (I did actually check however, as I thought the same thing as you!)
However, the cult used to be based in nearby Sulfur bay (which is easily identifiable due to the huge lava flow running by it), and several reports state that Lamakara is the nearest village. Which the one in the thumbnail is!
I’ll keep looking for that map I used before though.
@Rollo, that’s a damn good point! Here’s the current time in Vanuatu.
Hmm… I sense some career opportunities here for someone who is tired of western life and wouldn’t mind the admiration of hordes of Pacific Island girls…
According to this site there is also a Prince Philip cult on Tanna Island, which makes it all even more surreal.
Talking about impeccable research, if you search for “Lamakara” in Google the first hit is not even GSS, but this video of John Frum celebrations on YouTube.
And I was first wondering whether it was April Fool’s Day already!
@Alex, Rollo: Ah, but you’ll recall that around this time last year we defined the official GSS timezone as UTC-12. There’s still a whole day of partying left to do!
I was reading this article in my Google Reader and I had to scroll up to make sure this is not my Onion News report 🙂
Yes we have some weird and wonderful celebrations in Vanuatu!