Festivals of Mishing Tribes of Assam
20th Jan 2011
The Mishing tribes of Assam are fond of festivals. They observe many festivals throughout the year. The main festivals of Mishing are Porag, Armrok and Ali-Ai-Ligang. Ali-Ai-Ligang is the chief festival of Misings.
Porag: “Porag” is an important springtime festival of the Miris or the Mishings. Porag is a social festival of Mishing community. This festival is celebrated after harvesting of the Ahu rice. Generally, the youths of the Miris observe this festival in co-operation with the public. This festival is also called the “Nara Singa Bihu”. The Miris observe the Porag festival for a period of five days. The youth organization of the Miris called as ‘Mimbir Yame’ organised the festival, which they do it in a formal and systematic manner, called “Daghik”. At first, the “Morung” is renovated for celebrating the festival. Then the tie- beams and the posts of the same are also decorated splendidly. Large quantity of food, pigs and Poro Apong (rice drink) are arranged in advance. In this festival, the Mibos conducts the prayer of Chedi Melo and Doyi-Polo. In this festival both the young boys and girls put on their traditional dresses and take part in the dancing and singing along with the rhythmic beating of drums. The closing dance ‘Ponu Nunam’ is a special feature of dances of this festival.
Amrok: Amrok is celebrated in the month of Bhada-Ahin (August-September). There is a significant character of this festival. In this festival, each and every family of Mishing community offer food prepared from harvested crop to the ancestors in addition to the community ‘Amrok’. Two distinct features are prominent in the community festival. These are:
Ali-Ai-Ligang: The main festival of Mishing is Ali-Ai-Ligang. It is the most widely observed festival of the Mishing.
at the beginning of their sowing season. The first Wednesday of the month known as “Ligang Lange” is fixed for the Ligang festival. ‘Ali’ means root, seed; ‘Ai’ or ‘yai’ means fruit and ‘Ligang’ means sowing or planting of roots, seeds. That is why ‘ceremonial’ sowing of paddy starts on this day.
Young men and women celebrate the occasion by singing and dancing at night in the courtyard of every household in the village to the accompaniment of dhol or drums, cymbals, pepa, Siphung (flutes) and a gungang (gagana). Dancers wear the colourful dresses named as ‘Ribigacheng’ and ‘Ribiyege’. The festival continues for five days in the host village where community feast is always full of pork, apong and dry fishes. The guest villagers eat, drink, dance and sing and in returns they offer a ‘Gumrak’ dance performance. The last day of festival called as ‘Lilen’ is observed with a grand community feast.
Another occasion, called Dobur, is an animistic rite performed occasionally by the village community by sacrificing a sow and some hens for different purposes, such as to avert a likely crop failure and ensure general wellbeing of the community, or to avert the evil effects of a wrongdoing on the part of a member of the community, etc. The form of observance of Dobur varies according to the purpose. In the most common form, the younger male members of a village beat the walls of every house in the village from one end to the other with big sticks to drive away the ghosts and goblins hiding in nook and corner and perform the sacrificial rite at some distance away from the village, and hold a feast there. Anyone passing unwittingly through the venue of the rite has to stop in the place until evening or pay a fine.
In addition to the three traditional festivals, the Misings adopted in the valley the three Assamese seasonal festivals. These are:
· Bohag Bihu, the spring festival of gaiety and mirth, observed in mid-April,
· Magh Bihu, the post-harvest festival, marked by plenty of feasting, observed in mid-january, and
· Kati Bihu, which is bereft of any merry-making or feasting pleasures, observed in mid-October.