Sep 10, 2018 10:00 Staff Curator 823 Tweet Traditional Bihu Festival Springtime Bihu festival- called Bohag (spring) Bihu or Rongali Bihu. The festival lasts for seven days and marks the beginning of the Assamese New Year. Hadlapara Rabha people’s Distribute Bihu Food (Chira, Til, Laru ect.) 26 houses during celebration of Bhogalee Bihu with their own traditional customs at Hadlapara in Goalpara District, Assam on 14-01-17.pix by ub photos This brings us to the actual day of the festivities. On the day of Magh Bihu, people get up early and take a bath and then everyone proceeds to the Meji that had been built the previous day. The Meji is then lit up and then begins the rituals associated with it. Like the two other variants of Bihu, the Magh Bihu too is a festival rooted to the harvest and cultivation sector of the state. It is synonymous to ‘Makar Sankranti’ and ‘Pongal’ which are celebrated elsewhere in the country in resonance with Magh Bihu. Bihu performance is undergoing a rapid process of modernization, and so is the festival on the whole. This celebration being essentially linked to an agricultural society which characterizes a symbiotic relationship between man and nature gets displaced in an urban bourgeois setting. Rongali Bihu traces its origin and meaning to such older rites. The youth sing and dance in gay abandon during the festival to the accompaniment of bihu dhol (a special drum used on the occasion), pepa (buffalo horn pipes) and Taal (bell-metal cymbals). The half burnt firewood gathered by the people is thrown among the fruit bearing trees to seek an abundant harvest. Then all the trees in the compound are tied to bamboo strips or paddy stems. Magh Bihu celebrations start on the last day of the previous month, the month of "Pooh", usually the 29th of Pooh and usually the 14th of January, and is the only day of Magh Bihu in modern times (earlier, the festival would last for the whole month of Magh, and so the name Magh Bihu). Hadlapara Rabha people’s Distribute Bihu Food (Chira, Til, Laru ect.) 26 houses during celebration of Bhogalee Bihu with their own traditional customs at Hadlapara in Goalpara District, Assam on 14-01-17.pix by ub photos Related Article: Magh Bihu - A Festival of Fun and FeastsMagh Bihu: History and significance to Assamese CultureHistory and Significance of Rongali Bihu Sep 10, 2018 10:00 Staff Curator 823 Tweet
