The story
Meci Harvest Ceremony in Lore/Lautem
The Meci ceremony in Lore, Lautem, is a Fataluku community tradition centered on the seasonal emergence of the Palolo sea worm, known locally as meci, collected from the shore each March in a ritual guided by lunar phases, star positions, and songs performed during the harvest itself.
Along the south coast of Lautem municipality, near the settlement of Loré, the Fataluku people have long tracked one of the more unusual natural events in Timor-Leste's ecological calendar: the mass spawning of the Palolo worm, Palola viridis, a marine polychaete that surfaces in vast numbers on specific nights tied to lunar cycles, much like the more widely documented Palolo worm rises recorded elsewhere in the Pacific.