The Fandroana, termed the Royal Bath by 19th century European historians, is the annual New Year's festival of the Merina people inhabiting the highlands of central Madagascar.
[5] According to one version of the story, while traversing the countryside Ralambo and his men came across a wild zebu so exceptionally fat that the king decided to make a burnt offering of it.
The symbolism of renewal was particularly embodied in the traditional sexual permissiveness encouraged on the eve of the fandroana (characterized by early 19th-century British missionaries as an "orgy") and the following morning's return to rigid social order with the sovereign firmly at the helm of the kingdom.
Jaka was prepared during the festival by sealing shredded zebu meat with suet in a decorative clay jar; this confit would then be conserved in an underground pit for twelve months to be served at the next year's fandroana.
The Chef d'état Philippe Pétain was dressed as a Merina king and received a wooden zebu sculpture from the tirailleurs malgaches (Malagasy soldiers) stranded in France after the British invasion of Madagascar.