Volcanoes: Yasur

I took this photo of Rhapsodie as I flew to Tanna.

Tanna Island is the center of the John Frum cargo cult movement.  Cult members worship unspecified Americans having the name "John Frum", as in "John Frum America".  Anthropologists who study the Melanesian tribes speculate that Frum might have actually been a real person – most likely a generous sentry, engineer or aircraft mechanic who handed out goods, Hershey bars or medicine to the locals during the occupation. Perhaps he even identified himself as “John, from America”.  Cargo cultists believe that material wealth, such as money or manufactured goods, can be obtained through ritual worship.  

John Frum Day is an annual celebration, held on February 15, in the villages of Sulphur Bay and Lamakara on Tanna Island. Each year, a ritual army of men paint “U.S.A.” on their chests and perform an amalgamation of a military drill and kastom dances with wooden guns.

I visited this gathering of locals in a village near Mt. Yasur.  I was told that they were members of the John Frum movement.