Fijians practice many traditional arts and crafts. "Meke" performances are the most famous oral tradition in Fiji. Both men and women wear tapa cloth(a bark cloth decorated with symbolic motifs in ochre-rusts and charcoal-blacks) around their waist during the performance.Mekes accompanied special events like births, deaths, calls to war, and marriages. Other tradtional rituals include firewalking which can be performed solely by legendary firewalkers of Beqa Island. It is done after three weeks of fasting and ascestic life. A yaqona or kava ceremony are also important rituals and it would be impossible to conduct business in present day Fiji without them. Yaqona is the dried root of the pepper plant and is pounded into a fine powder, steeped in water, strained and served in an elaborate ceremony on formal occasions.Today it is still an essential ingredient during Fijian ceremonies pertaining to births, deaths and marriages.