Respecting the power of a blessing

Before an exam or before leaving to travel for a long time, it’s important for a Malagasy person to receive blessings from older family members. Some will go to the fasan-drazana to ask for a blessing from the ancestors or the parents buried in the tomb. This is known as “Ny tso-drano zava-mahery”, which literally means “blessings are powerful”. The Malagasy believe that the blessings from the family – represented mostly by parents and grandparents – will help them to be successful in everything they do and will keep curses away from them.

"Ny tso-drano zava-mahery" comes from the words tsoka, mitsoka ( to blow) and water (rano), and so it’s written tsodrano or tso-drano. The importance of tsodrano lies also in the fact that it marks the absence of objection from whoever might be concerned. When family members and friends give their tsodrano to a wedding, for example, it means that they approve of the marriage. Another example is the politicians, especially presidential candidates, asking for tsodrano from the “ray aman-dreny”, may it be their own parents or from the wise of the country.