According to the most recent census in 2017, just under 7 in 10 people in Fiji are Christian (69.21% of the population), with a sizable Hindu (24.0%) and Muslim (5.8%) minority. Religion tends to split along ethnic lines with most Indigenous Fijians being Christian and most Indo-Fijians being mostly Hindu or in some cases, Muslim.US State Dept 2022 report
Aboriginal Fijian religion could be classified in modern terms as forms of animism or shamanism, traditions utilizing various systems of divination which strongly affected every aspect of life. Fiji was Christianised in the 19th century. Today, there are various Christian denominations in Fiji, the largest being the Methodist church. Hinduism and Islam arrived with the importation of large numbers of people from South Asia, most of them indentured, in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Fiji has many public holidays as it acknowledges the special days held by the various belief systems, such as Easter and Christmas for the Christians, Diwali for the Hindus and the Eid al-Adha for the Muslims.
History Fijian religion before the 19th century included various forms of animism and divination. Contact from the early 19th century with European Christian missionaries, especially of the Methodist denomination, saw the conversion of dominant chiefs such as Octavia and, thus, also the people they controlled. Cession of the islands to Great Britain in 1874 saw great change in all aspects of life including religious practice. Christianity became the dominant faith. Hinduism, Sikhism and Islam were introduced as minority migrant communities came to work in Fiji.
Demographics
+ Comparison of 1996 and 2007 census results Religion 1996 % 2007 %2017% Anglican 6,325 0.8% 6,319 0.8% Assembly of God 31,072 4.0% 47,791 5.7% Catholic 69,320 8.9% 76,465 9.1% Methodist 280,628 36.2% 289,990 34.6% Seventh-day Adventist 22,187 2.9% 32,316 3.9% Other Christians 39,950 5.2% 86,672 10.4% Hindu 261,097 33.7% 233,414 27.9%212,34624.0% Sikh 3,067 0.4% 2,540 0.3% Muslim 54,323 7.0% 52,505 6.3%50,9255.8% Other Religion 1,967 0.3% 2,181 0.3% No Religion 5,132 0.7% 7,078 0.8% Total Christian 449,482 58.0% 539,553 64.4%612,41569.2% Total 775,068 100% 837,271 100%884,887100%
+ 1996 DataReligionIndigenous FijianIndo-FijianOthersTOTAL393,575%338,818%42,684%775,077%Methodist261,97266.65,4321.613,22431.0280,62836.2Roman Catholic52,16313.33,5201.013,63731.969,3208.9Assemblies of God24,7176.24,6201.41,7354.131,0724.0Seventh-day Adventist19,8965.15720.21,7194.022,1872.9Anglican2,5080.61,2080.42,6096.26,3250.8Jehovah's Witness4,8151.24860.18011.96,1020.8CMF (Every Home)5,1491.32690.12550.65,6730.7Latter Day Saints2,2530.66330.25891.43,4750.4Apostolic2,2370.62500.11060.22,5930.3Gospel6180.25140.22220.51,3540.2Baptist6950.23820.12190.51,2960.2Salvation Army6280.22510.11100.39890.1Presbyterian1050.0900.01880.43830.0Other Christian12,6243.22,4920.72,9697.018,0852.3All Christians390,38099.220,7196.138,38389.9449,48258.0Sanātanī5510.1193,06157.03150.7193,92725.0Arya Samaj440.09,4932.8270.19,5641.2Kabir Panthi430.0730.020.01180.0Sai Baba70.0520.010.0600.0Other Hindu2190.157,09616.91130.357,4287.4All Hindus8640.2259,77576.74581.1261,09733.7Sunni Islam1750.032,0829.5940.232,3514.2Ahmadiyya180.01,9440.6140.01,9760.3Other Muslim1310.019,7275.81380.319,9962.6All Muslims3240.153,75315.92460.654,3237.0Sikh00.03,0760.900.03,0670.4Baháʼí Faith3890.1250.01490.35630.1Confucianism80.0210.03360.83650.0Other religions610.03140.16641.61,0390.1No religion†15490.41,1350.32,4485.75,1320.7 † Includes atheists and agnostics.
Law Fiji had traditional law prior to becoming a colony. After cession, laws that governed Britain were also applied to its colonies and religion developed under the Westminster system. Freedom of religion and conscience has been constitutionally protected in Fiji since the country gained independence in 1970. In 1997, a new constitution was drawn up. It stated: Although religion and the State are separate, the people of the Fiji Islands acknowledge that worship and reverence of God are the source of good government and leadership. but also guaranteed every person 35.-(1) Every person has the right to freedom of conscience, religion and belief.
(2) Every person has the right, either individually or in community with others, and both in public and in private, to manifest his or her religion or belief in worship, observance, practice or teaching.
(3) The right set out in subsection (2) extends to the right of religious communities or denominations to provide religious instruction as part of any education provided by them, whether or not they are in receipt of any financial assistance from the State.
(4) The right set out in subsection (2) may be made subject to such limitations prescribed by law as are necessary:
(a) to protect:
(i) the rights or freedoms of other persons; or
(ii) public safety, public order, public morality or public health: or
(b) to prevent a public nuisance.
(5) Except with his or her consent or, in the case of a person under the age of 18, the consent of a parent or guardian, a person attending a place of education is not required to receive religious instruction or to take part in or attend a religious ceremony or observance if the instruction, ceremony or observance relates to a religion that is not his or her own or if he or she does not hold any religious belief.
(6) A person must not be compelled to take an oath, or to take an oath in a manner that is contrary to his or her religion or belief or that requires him or her to express a belief that he or she does not hold. Section 35(1),(2) The 1997 Constitution was suspended in 2009 and replaced in 2013. This constitution states in chapter 1: 4.(1) Religious liberty, as recognised in the Bill of Rights, is a founding principle of the State. (2) Religious belief is personal. (3) Religion and the State are separate, which means— (a) the State and all persons holding public office must treat all religions equally; (b) the State and all persons holding public office must not dictate any religious belief; (c) the State and all persons holding public office must not prefer or advance, by any means, any particular religion, religious denomination, religious belief, or religious practice over another, or over any non-religious belief; and (d) no person shall assert any religious belief as a legal reason to disregard this Constitution or any other law. The 2013 Constitution also explicitly allows people to swear an oath or to make an affirmation when legally necessary.
Freedom of religion
In 2023, Fiji scored 4 out of 4 for religious freedom.Freedom House website, retrieved 2023-08-03
Ancient religion
The term ancient religion in this article refers to the religious beliefs and practices in Fiji prior to it becoming a Colony.
Gods, temples and magic Fijian religion, myth, and legend were closely linked and in the centuries before the cession of 1874, it was considered part of everyday life. Of the traditional religion in Fiji, Basil Thomson (1908:111) writes:
The religion of the Fijians was so closely interwoven with their social polity that it was impossible to tear away the one without lacerating the other. ... Religion was a hard taskmaster to the heathen Fijian; it governed his every action from the cradle-mat to the grave. In the tabu it prescribed what he should eat and drink, how he should address his betters, whom he should marry, and where his body should be laid. It limited his choice of the fruits of the earth and of the sea; it controlled his very bodily attitude in his own house. All his life he walked warily for fear of angering the deities that went in and out with him, ever watchful to catch him tripping, and death but cast him naked into their midst to be the sport of their vindictive ingenuity.
Myth was very much reality in the years preceding and following cession. For example, in Taveuni, their god, Kalou Vu(root god), is named Dakuwaqa (Back boat). In Levuka and Kadavu Islands, he is known as Daucina (Expert Light) due to the phosphorescence he caused in the sea as he passed. Daucina, however, has a different connotation as a Kalou yalo (deified ancestors) in other parts of Fiji.
Dakuwaqa took the form of a great shark and lived on Benau Island, opposite Somosomo Strait. He was highly respected by the people of Cakaudrove and Natewa as the god of seafaring and fishing communities, but also the patron of adulterers and philanderers. In the book "Pacific Irishman", the Anglican priest Charles William Whonsbon-Ashton records in Chapter 1, "Creation":
When I came to Fiji the famed fish-god, the Dakuwaqa, was very much a reality. The Government ship, the Lady Escott, reached Levuka with signs of an encounter with the great fish, while the late Captain Robbie, a well known, tall, and very erect Scot, even to his nineties, told of the sleepy afternoon as his cutter was sailing from his tea estate at Wainunu, under a very light wind, with most of the crew dozing. A great fish, which he described as near 60 feet in length, brown-spotted and mottled on its back, with the head of a shark and the tail of a whale, came up under his ship, almost capsizing it. The crew, instantly awake and concerned, followed the ancient pattern, pouring a strong libation of kava into the sea, which, it would seem, was just the right idea for placating fish-gods; the monster slowly submerged, the breeze gradually gathered the cutter away, its keel dragging along the monster's back, making the skin pale. To the Fijian crew, this was the "Dakuwaqa"--in the twentieth century; what must have been the effect in the tenth?
As late as 1957, R.A Derrick (1957:13) states:
Many Yavusa still venerate a bird (e.g. kingfisher, pigeon, heron), an animal (e.g. dog, rat, or even man), a fish or reptile (e.g. shark, eel, snake), a tree (especially the ironwood or Nokonoko), or a vegetable, claiming one or more of these as peculiarly their own and refusing to injure or eat them. The relationship is evidently totemic, and it is probable that each totemic group originally recognized a complete series of three totems: manumanu (living creature, whether animal, bird or insect), fish or vegetable, and tree.
The Gods and their temples
Traditionally, Fijian religion had a hierarchy of gods called "Kalou" or sometimes in the western dialect "Nanitu". In 1854 an early Methodist missionary, Rev. Joseph Waterhouse stated:
It is impossible to ascertain even the probable number of the gods of Fiji; for disembodied spirits are called gods, and are regarded as such. But the natives make a distinction between those who were gods originally, and those who are only deified spirits. The former they call Kalou-vu (root-gods), the latter Kalou-yalo (deified mortals). Of the former class the number is great; but the latter are without number...There were various ranks amongst the Kalou-vu according to the extent of their territory and the number of their worshippers. Thus, some gods were universally known throughout Fiji, others were local gods of large or small territories, while some were simply gods of particular families.Basil Thomson (1908:113) suggests that, "Groups in Fiji who are tauvu or kalou-vata, i.e. worshippers of the same god, have a common origin".