Amidst Lok Sabha elections, Assam is all geared up to celebrate Rongali or Bohag Bihu with vibrant arrangements being made to celebrate the state’s most significant festival.
Preparations to celebrate the biggest festival of Assam are in full swing.
The Bohag Bihu is a harvest or sowing festival and the Assamese New Year started from April 15. People celebrate the Rongali Bihu by arranging feast (ja-jalpan) with pitha (rice cake), laru (traditional food made of coconut).
It is celebrated with great enthusiasm and joy across the state. The festival signifies the onset of the agricultural season and is celebrated with great enthusiasm and fervour. This year, Rongali Bihu will be observed from April 14 to April 20.
People throng fancy Bazaar ahead of Rongali Bihu festival in Guwahati.
Children wearing traditional attires participate in the ‘dhol badan workshop’ organised by the Pub Guwahati Bihu Sanmilan ahead of the Rongali Bihu festival, at the AEI Playground, Chandmari, in Guwahati, Assam.
Rongali Bihu is a multi-day festival that typically spans seven days, each day known as ‘Xaat Bihu.’ The celebration involves various cultural activities, traditional rituals, and feasting.
Artisan are busy making traditional dhol (drum) ahead of the Rongali Bihu festival in various districts of Assam.
The Assamese Dhol is a two-faced drum played with a stick and a hand and is one of the most important musical instruments in the folk entertainment and culture of Assam.
People celebrate the Rongali Bihu by arranging feast (ja-jalpan) with pitha (rice cake), laru (traditional food made of coconut).
Beautiful agricultural state of Assam celebrates major agricultural events as the festival of Bihu. Notably, there are three Bihu festivals in year namely – Rongali Bihu or Bohag Bihu, Bhugali (Magh Bihu) and Kangali (Kati Bihu) marking the distinctive phase in the farming calendar.
The Rongali Bihu marks the agricultural New Year at the advent of seeding time and is celebrated as the Festival of Merriment.
Colourful rituals mark the first day of Rongali Bihu celebrated as Garu Bihu. This day is dedicated to cattle and livestock. The rest of the weeklong celebrations of Bohag Bihu are known as Manuh Bihu. A mood of festivity and gaiety is seen throughout Assam during the seven days of Rongali Bihu.
During these days of Bihu, the Assamese kitchen are filled with many traditional items and also people celebrate this Bihu by performing traditional Bihu dance in the form of husori. Husori is one of the kind of Bihu dance in which a group of Bihu dancers visited households to perform the dance to seek blessings from the elder. People also exchanged Bihuwan to the dear and near ones in this festival as a mark of respect to the elders and love to the young ones.
On the first day of Rongali Bihu – the cattle are washed, and smeared with a paste of fresh turmeric, black lentil, etc while people sing to them – “Lao kha, bengena kha, bosore bosore barhi ja, maar xoru, baper xoru, toi hobi bor bor goru (Eat gourd, eat brinjal, grow from year to year, your mother is small, your father is small, but you be a large one)” and then the people also worship the cattle.
The music of Dhol, Pepa, Gagana are mesmerizing the environment.
