By Darren ak Luke
LIMBANG — Gawai Dayak is a yearly celebration of thanksgiving among the Dayaks for the bountiful blessings that the Lord had bestowed throughout the past year.
However, this celebration is not only confined to the Dayaks, but to all people of goodwill who join this celebration in the spirit of unity and communal harmony. Hence, the Catholic community in the parish of St Edmund’s, Limbang organised a Gawai Ngiling Bidai to mark the closing of the Gawai celebration among its parishioners on 14 June 2025 at the St Edmund’s Catholic Church, Limbang.
The celebration began with a Gawai Thanksgiving Mass at 8am, and followed by the gathering of the parishioners and guests in the Dewan St Edmund, where everyone was served with local food delicacies and generous amount of local drinks of tuaks.
In the spirit of Segulai Sejalai, many parishioners contributed by bringing along food and drinks from their houses to be shared among everyone.
This Gawai Dayak open house was further made merrier by the sounds of traditional Dayak music and several traditional games played out among the guests. Blessed draw tickets were sold, with generous amounts of blessed draw prizes presented to the winners.
Being a Gawai Dayak celebration, this event was organised by the parish’s Iban Prayer Group. Cikgu Edward Palleh, who was the Tuai Gawai for this event, said that nearly 800 parishioners and guests attended this event, which included about 67 pilgrims from the Miri parish. This event received a pleasant surprise when YB Datuk Liwan Lagang, the Deputy Minister for Utility & Telecommunication, Sarawak dropped by to join the festivities. He happened to be in Limbang to celebrate the State-level Yang di-Pertuan Agong’s Birthday Celebration.
Rev Fr Henry Saleh, the parish rector, urged the parishioners to continue to live in the spirit of Segulai Sejalai. Even though we are many and divided by different culture and race, we must always remain as one family under God. Hence, we must always be thankful to God for the many blessings that we have received from him. He also reminded the young generations to always take the opportunity to go back to the kampongs, take care of their lands and till them for their future. They must spend time to get back to their family roots, learn and appreciate them.
Fr Henry Saleh also prays and hopes that this Gawai celebration will continue to be celebrated in the Church, so as to continue to instill this spirit of unity among the various people in the Church, which is the Body of Christ.
