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Nagaland Situated
at the easternmost part of the country is replete with
festivities all through the year as all the tribes have their
own festivals which they hold so dear. They regard their
festivals sacrosanct and participation in celebration is
compulsory. They celebrate their distinct seasonal festivals
with a pageantry of colour and a feast of music.
Most of these festivals revolve around agriculture, it being
the main-stay of Naga society. Over 85% population of Nagaland
is directly dependent on agriculture and lives in a thousand
and odd villages situated on high hill tops or slopes
overlooking verdant valleys humming with murmuring streams. In
this blissful setting Nagas enjoy the blessing of Nature with
a rare gusto striking the onlookers with awe and admiration.
In most of the places agriculture consists of monocrop.
Although some religious and spiritual sentiments are
interwoven into secular rites and rituals, the pre-dominant
theme of the festivals is offering of prayers to a supreme
being having different names in different Naga dialects. At
these festivals, the spirits of Gods are propitiated with
sacrifices by the village Shaman for a bountiful harvest
either before the sowing or on the eve of the sowing. |