Reba Festival

In the Ngada highlands of central Flores, the new year begins not with fireworks but with Reba, a multi-day ceremony of thanksgiving, ancestral remembrance, and communal renewal that predates the island's Catholicism and runs deeper than it.

Families gather across villages to share ritual foods, perform traditional dances, and recite genealogies aloud, reaffirming the bonds between the living and those who came before. It is a festival that rewards patience and presence: the meaning accumulates over days, not hours. Arriving with proper introductions, staying long enough for the ceremony to open up, and leaving with a sense of Flores that most visitors never reach, that is the experience worth seeking.

Best time to visit  January

Typically held in the first weeks of January across Ngada villages; precise dates vary by village and are confirmed locally