NPR
The Okalolies of Old Year’s Night
Celebrating tradition on the world’s most remote inhabited island
A group of Okalolies head toward a house belonging to one of their own in Edinburgh of the Seven Seas on Tristan da Cunha, in the South Atlantic Ocean, on Dec. 31, 2023. New Year's Eve, or Old Year's Night as it's known on the island, is a chance for the whole community to come together.
An Okalolie poses inside a clandestine changing room — a small sawmill. The Okalolies are part of a type of visiting custom known as mumming in which young men disguise themselves, visit homes and engage in playful pranks — mainly at Christmas and on New Year's Eve — that have existed in Europe for the past 500 years.
Several Okalolies peer into the kitchen of a house belonging to one of their own. Although they are careful not to frighten children and the elderly too much, they are expected to make light mischief, and will attempt to soak any woman they find with a garden hose.
An Okalolie gets ready inside a clandestine changing room — a small sawmill.
An Okalolie passes a house in the only settlement of Tristan da Cunha - Edinburgh of the Seven Seas - on December 31st, 2023.
An Okalolie poses with Savanna Green. After quickly taking off his mask to identify himself, the two posed for a picture, like they've done every year since Savanna was a little girl.
An Okalolie is looking for people that might be hiding, Tristan da Cunha, December 1st, 2023.
An Okalolie poses inside the secret location where he got changed, Edinburg of the Seven Seas, Tristan da Cunha, South Atlantic Ocean, December 31, 2023.
written by Nick Schönfeld
Dec. 31, 2023, shortly before 2 p.m. Gray, low-hanging clouds obscure the tops of green cliffs that tower over Edinburgh of the Seven Seas, a village of 238 people and the sole settlement on the island of Tristan da Cunha.
Tristan lies in the middle of the South Atlantic ocean, a famously wild and unpredictable expanse of water.
The closest inhabited place is St. Helena, the island where Napoleon Bonaparte lived out the last of his days that sits 1,514 miles to the north; around 2,434 miles to the west lies Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay; to the south, you'll find nothing but cold ocean and icebergs until you hit Antarctica; and 1,732 miles due east lies Cape Town, South Africa.
Buffeted by blustery South Atlantic gusts, I follow brothers Dean and Randal Repetto as they make their way through the deserted streets. We're the last to arrive at a small sawmill nestled in between two corrugated iron warehouses…