HOLIDAYS AND TRADITIONS

Festivals and Events in Tonga

On the fourth of July, the Tongans celebrate the King's birthday with the week long Heilala Festival. It coincides with the flowering of the Heilala, Tonga's national flower.

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Religion in Tonga

The king and the majority of the royal family are members of the Free Wesleyan Church (Methodist) which claims some 40,000 adherents in the country. There are four other Methodist denominations in the country. The Roman Catholic Church and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints each have a strong presence in the country as well. Tonga also has members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, Anglicans, adherents of the Bah Faith, Hinduism, Buddhism and Muslims.

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Geography of Tonga

Located in Oceania, Tonga is an archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean, directly south of Western Samoa and about two-thirds of the way from Hawaii to New Zealand. Its 176 islands, 36 of them inhabited, are divided into three main groups – Vava'u, Ha'apai, and Tongatapu – and cover an 800-kilometre (500-mile)-long north-south line.