February 15 - John Frum Day in Tanna, Vanuatu

nPosted on February 15, 2020

nToday, on an island in the Melanesian / South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu, Ni-Vanuatu men will wear old U.S. Army and Air Force uniforms in a parade. People with surnames like Lini and Salwai will wear green fatigues with name tags like Hill and Patterson. They will carry sharpened bamboo poles, and they will march and perform military maneuvers.

nThis parade is a notable feature of John Frum Day, a holiday that has to do with a mysterious figure – possibly a United States soldier – named John Frum. The reason why Frum is celebrated on this day, of all days, is that he is said to have promised to return to the island of Tanna on February 15 of some unnamed year.

nNote that John Frum was supposed to have first visited Tanna in 1939, more than 80 years ago, so he would be REALLY old if he were still alive.

nAnd if he were actually a man.

nSome people call John Frum a spirit being or a god. Some people believe he was a real and historic person. Some assume that he is a legend that was cobbled together from several historic and/or legendary characters.

nStill others shrug all of that speculation away as unimportant. They insist that the importance of John Frum is the inspiration he provides to Vanuatuans: the religion and/or the political party and/or the social movement that he inspired.

Some celebrating John Frum Day will be celebrating his
supposed connection to the United States, as well.
On the other hand, some Vanuatuan believers in John
Frum say that he doesn’t have any connection with the
U.S. OR with the date February 15!

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nFrum is supposed to have mysteriously appeared on the island, telling the Ni-Vanuatu people that they should resist the European Christian missionaries who had insisted that Vanuatuans move their villages, abandon their religion, and follow the Christian god. Frum supposedly instructed them to flee from the missionaries and their teachings, and instead go back to the old places and old ways.

Honoring “the old ways” includes grass skirts – and here
women dressed in gorgeous grass skirts perform during John
Frum Day.

nThat’s why John Frum is seen as a religious figure AND a figure of political resistance AND a figure empowering Vanuatuans to maintain their traditions.

nI find it interesting that it is so difficult – actually, impossible, probably! – to discover exactly how the John Frum thing got started, even though it began during modern times, less than a century ago.

nBy the way, I wrote about “cargo cults” and John Frum in this earlier post.