Marara Nja

Gũthahũra Kĩganda (Cleansing the irua venue)

Marara Nja starts with Gũthahũra Kĩganda. This is done by slaughtering a sacrificial ram and using tatha (chyme/rumen fluid), or ira (white soil from Mt. Kenya), to scatter in the Kĩganda and all spaces that the young men will be in during the Residential Camp. Prayers are also offered for the boys to Ngai, Mwene Nyaga, Mumbi (God, the owner of the Crest, the Creator) to have a successful, incident-free circumcision.

Cleansing, blessings and the last dance

The Mũgongoni performs a gũtheria (cleansing) ceremony on the boys to prepare them for circumcision the following day. The fathers also get to kũrathima (bless) their sons and pray for them to have a blessed new life as young men.

The mothers perform a symbolic ceremony called kũrenga rũrĩra kerĩ (severing the umbilical cord the second time), marking separation from the childhood "mum's boy" as they become young men. The mothers and the sons also have a symbolic "last dance" to celebrate the last shared moment of mother and son as a child.

Kwenjwo Ng'ũrũ (Head shaving)

The last act of Marara Nja for the boy is to undergo kwenjwo ng'ũrũ (a full bald head shaving) ceremony. The shaving symbolizes doing away with boyhood/childhood and starting a new chapter (new hair) as a young circumcised man. The shaving is performed by the boy's mũtiiri.

Staying up all night

There is dance, feasting and merry-making for everyone present to celebrate the boys' last day "as children". Mothers, women and girls leave in the early evening to go back home. The fathers, men present and atiiri (mentors) however remain awake in the Kĩganda the whole night, hence the term Marara Nja; meaning "to stay up outside the whole night".