Culture
Fiji's culture is a rich mosaic of Indigenous Fijian, Indo-Fijian, Asian and European traditions, comprising social polity, language, food (based mainly from the sea, plus casava, dalo (taro) & other vegetables), costume, belief systems, architecture, arts, craft, music, dance and sports.
Indigenous Fijian culture and tradition is very vibrant and is an integral component of everyday life for the majority of Fiji's population. However, Fijian society has also evolved over the past century with the introduction of more recent traditions, such as Indian and Chinese, as well as heavy influences from Europe and Fiji's Pacific neighbours – particularly Tonga and Samoa. Thus, the various cultures of Fiji have come together to create a unique multicultural national identity.
Fiji's culture was showcased at the World Exposition held in Vancouver, Canada in 1986 and, more recently, at the Shanghai World Expo 2010, along with other Pacific countries in the Pacific Pavilion.
Read more about this topic: Tourism In Fiji
Famous quotes containing the word culture:
“When we want culture more than potatoes, and illumination more than sugar-plums, then the great resources of a world are taxed and drawn out, and the result, or staple production, is, not slaves, nor operatives, but men,—those rare fruits called heroes, saints, poets, philosophers, and redeemers.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“We now have a whole culture based on the assumption that people know nothing and so anything can be said to them.”
—Stephen Vizinczey (b. 1933)
“One of the oddest features of western Christianized culture is its ready acceptance of the myth of the stable family and the happy marriage. We have been taught to accept the myth not as an heroic ideal, something good, brave, and nearly impossible to fulfil, but as the very fibre of normal life. Given most families and most marriages, the belief seems admirable but foolhardy.”
—Jonathan Raban (b. 1942)