Bodi’s New Year, where fattest (sexiest person) of the year is crowned
January 13, 2022
New Year’s Eve is celebrated around the world with a feast and champagne in the company of friends and family, while dazzling New Year’s fireworks light up the skies, while for the Bodi tribe, the New Year is the most anticipated and important occasion where the fattest (sexiest person) of the year is crowned.
Over the course of six months, finalists from each household are isolated and forced to stay on a strict diet to eat only fresh cow blood and milk. . The cows are sacred to the Bodi tribe so they are not killed for the purpose of the ritual. The blood is drawn by making a hole in a vein with a spear , and after that, they close it with clay. For fear of losing weight, they are not permitted to have sex, to move an inch, or leave the hut. Unmarried girls in the household are responsible for assisting them with their fatting up to the final competition day.
Held in the south of Ethiopia, the Ke’er/keel takes place between the final week of March and the first week of june. The Bodi tribe, also known as the Meen or Mekan, is a semi-nomadic people living in the Mago wooded savannah on the eastern side of the Omo river in South Ethiopia, surviving through a combination of livestock herding (cattle, goats, and sheep), some hunting and gathering, and flood-relief cultivation.
The Bodi tribe’s months of the year are poetically named after constellations, ke’er is originally connected to a constellation period called the Pleiades. In this region, the Pleiades constellation sinks into the west around March. A month or two months later, the entire region starts congregating in the vast open space of the komorut’s (chief) herding camp , singing and dancing. The bodi women, like the neighboring Mursi tribe, dress up and adorn themselves with flowers and red ochar. ?They also wear a delicately carved wooden lip-plug the size of a coin on their lips.
On New Year’s Eve, hundreds of contenders cover themselves in clay and ashes and perform a series of enigmatic dances in a circle around sacred trees. Aside from their physical stature, their dance abilities are also evaluated. Their judges and the entire community are keeping a close eye on them as they do so. An elderly individual will measure each fat man’s neck, thigh, abdomen, and arms. The individual with the highest number is the winner.
fat man of the year is regarded the highest individual achievement, the most admired person among men and women, particularly young girls, and is every Bodi child’s fantasy, as he will always be a hero even if his belly returns to normal.
