Cities Papua New Guinea: Mount Hagen

The capital of the region – Mount Hagen (Mount Hagen) is a colorful and noisy commercial center, where rapid income from coffee and tea plantations quickly displaced the traditional lifestyle, turning the city into a kind of similarity "Cities of Frontira" From movies about wild west.

Raisingly grown over the last quarter of a century from a tiny village of cattle breeders and planters, the city has absorbed representatives of almost all ethnic groups of the country. Maybe therefore it is considered one of "The most festive" Country cities – There is a huge number of different cultural festivals, festive ceremonies and a variety of traditional events, starting with the usual in these parts of the holiday of the redemption of the bride and ending with the colorful ceremony about the opening of a new road.

The best time to visit Mount Hagen – August when the annual city festival is held. Representatives of hundreds of various mountain tribes are going to this holiday, each in its characteristic breeding dress, headdress (an important element in local symbolism, by the way) and coloring of the body. This festival is a wonderful opportunity to get acquainted with the rich traditions and the social structure of the peoples of mountainous areas.

Products of local handicrafts can be seen in the cultural center of Mount Hagen. It is located in a carefully restored traditional rustic hut and has a small museum with exhibitions of various crafts and ethnic elements. The traditional center of the public life of the city is a Sabbath market, where representatives of all the peoples of the region are gathering. This is a real kaleidoscope of fruits and vegetables, birds and animals, farmers in bright shirts or skirts, as well as hunters in traditional clothes from grass and feathers. Men here are long beards, and women are a lot of brilliant scarves and bright colored bags-lobs "Billum". Here you can buy almost the entire range of folk crafts, which is famous for this region.