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Life cycles and natural cycles are not necessarily accompanied by collective rituals, except at puberty, the ritual for which marks the entry into the adult phase (Okomo, in Aparai). This ritual can be repeated at other times in the adult phase of life as a kind of confirmation and act of bravery; however, since the beginning of the 1980s, this custom has been practiced less and less.

There are no age classes that serve as markers for passage rites, but there are festive occasions of a more social nature which have become important moments for transmitting knowledge, even if they are not directly connected to the development of subsistence activities or phases of the individual life cycle, although they may be influenced by them. The festivals can take place with only the members of a single village or bring together kin from other villages, in such a way as to mark social frontiers, the webs of relationship – those with whom I can trade, what I can trade, those with whom I keep a greater social distance – of hostility or total enmity. Besides that, in the festivals, when alcohol consumption is quite high, the ideal of moderation in conduct gives way to outbursts of emotion, and extra-marital relations are common. The festivals, which last on the average from three to four days, end when there is nothing more to drink.

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The period of greatest festivity occurs between the end of the ripening of the manioc and the beginning of a new cycle, before the next planting, that is, in the period between harvests, when they spend more time on leisure. There is no festival without beverages, there is no beverage without a good harvest, since the beverage consumed is made from manioc, particularly caxiri and sakurá. The things that are considered positive in a person’s life – success in hunting, fishing, purchase of the first rifle, a successful journey, etc. – are transformed into reasons to hold a festival. On the initiative of a member of the village, the chief decides when and where the festival will be held. The quantity of beverage is seen as a marker of hospitality and generosity: the chief is considered “good” when he knows how to receive guests well, that is, when there is no lack of beverage at his festival and when everyone enjoys themselves and there are no fights – up to a short while ago, this quality was also measured by musical performance, of songs and dances which have today become scarce. (On the French Guiana side, on the upper Maroni, the festivals since the end of the ‘80s have been accompanied by highly sophisticated electronic music organized by the youths). Everything is measured and critically observed by all the participants, as though the festival functioned as a kind of social regulator. It is a moment when knowledge, of those who organize the festival and the public which participates in it, is put to the test: those who know gain an increase in status while others try to make an effort to learn.

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The festivals are called by the term wãko, which means to dance, differentiating a festival from a meeting. The dances, each of which has its own rhythm, express variations on the same genre in which there is a group of players and dancers. The festivals begin in the afternoon on the village plaza, around the benches of the players and dancers which are placed in a semi-circle, and last three to four days with small interruptions. Wind instruments and percussion instruments accompany the dances: flutes, rattles, rhythm sticks, as well as songs; the combination of these four elements depends on each celebration. Each festival has a name, generally associated with a mythical being, and called in Portuguese, ‘enchanted being’. These beings were produced by the creator Ikujuri for the purpose of teaching men; once the men learned, these beings lost direct contact with humans. In the repertoire of the festivals, surveyed in two villages, one Aparai and the other mixed Wayana and Aparai on the Tumucumaque Indigenous Park, 17 types of different themes were recorded (the names were gathered in the Aparai language and we indicate between parentheses the corresponding name in Wayana for several of them):

Turekoka (Ture) - name of enchanted animal and flute (celebrated at Christmas);

Tajaja - name of an enchanted being and flute music;

Tamoko (Tamok) - name of enchanted being (they don’t know how to celebrate this festival anymore);

Arimikurerueny – a festival accompanied by a long flute blown with the nose ‘arimikurerueny (“pretty flute of the monkey”);

Tãkoru - name of the flute and the enchanted being;

Tajehna – flute of jorokó and enchanted being;

Aikororueny – flute of a mythical frog, aikoro (this flute is played in the festival of Okomo);

Kãnkuerueny – flute of the toucan, kãnkue;

Okomo (wasp) – great festival;

Oropu - name of a jorokó (flute and song /celebrated at Christmas);

Tahsemyimo – name of an enchanted being (song; celebrated at Christmas);

Aitakara – name of an enchanted being (played with four flutes; celebrated at Christmas);

Rueimo - name of the flute;

Arekorueny - feathered panpipe representing the enchanted frog;

Purupoporueny (turtle shell), an enchanted being; it is played accompanied by a panpipe;

Piririwa (Pililiwa) – flute and enchanted being;

kurumorueny – flute of the vulture.

Since the 1970s, the repertoire of festivals has been diminishing considerably, with only a few names and vague memories remaining. Besides that many of them have come to be celebrated at Christmas time, by virtue of the Indians’ living together with government employees and missionaries (who worked together to reduce the number of festivals). However, despite the social transformations which have exercised a direct influence on the repertoire, periodicity and meaning of the festivals, they continue to remind individuals of how their social world is organized, reiterating ethnic and moral values, teaching people how to act and to become a person.