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Nagaland
happens to be a land of festivals. All the tribes of the state
have their own festivals. They celebrate their distinct seasonal
festivals with a pageantry of colour and a feast of music. 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.
These
festivals revolve round agriculture, it being the mainstay 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 rare gusto striking
the
Ziona
onlookers with awe and admiration. In most of the places
agriculture consists of monocrop.
Although
some religious and spiritual sentiments are inter woven 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. In these festivals
the Village Shaman offer sacrifices to propitiate spirit of God
for a bountiful harvest either before the sowing or on the eve
of harvest.
The
important thing about the Naga festivals is their corporate
character. The community as a whole participates in the
celebrations. There is a definite programme stretching over a
specified period in which all the village folk join.
MOATSU
Among
the Aos, the most important festival is Moatsu, which is
celebrated after the sowing is
over. The festival lasts for six days. On the first night of the
festival sexual intercourse was forbidden. Every man was
required to wear a new belt, for hanging his dao. The unmarried
men received belts as presents from their girl friends, the
married men got from their wives. During this occasion, the
restriction relating to dress and ornaments were relaxed. People
could wear even the forbidden ones according to their will.
The
most important role, during the festival used to be played by the
youths of the bachelor's dormitory. Before the festival, the
Ziona
morung had to be repaired and cleansed. The dancing drums
were also put to order by attaching new skins. On the first day of
the festival, the boys belonging to the younger age groups used to
go to the jungle and collect six bundles of paired bamboo strips
each. These they handed over to the morung elders, for use
according to their discretion. On the second day, all the boys and
grown-up males engaged themselves in clearing the village,
particularly the main approaches to the village. That night, the
cows and the pigs to be slaughtered on the occasion of this
festival were tied outside the morung.
SEKRENYI
The
principal Angami festival is the Sekrenyi. It is celebrated in February by
the Western Angamis and in December by the Southern Angamis. The festival is
to ensure the health and well being of the community during the coming year.
It is an occasion of great merry making; enormous quantities of rice-beer,
beef and pork are consumed. An interesting feature of the festival is that
the men have to prepare a separate hearth and abstain from any sexual
relation for the first two days.
SANKARNI
One
of the major festivals of the Zemis is the Sankarni Puja, which coincides
with Shivaratri. Single boys and girls join in the Sankarni puja that lasts
over a week. Chanting songs, they smoke, eat and drink to their hearts
content. Contribution in money and kind is welcome from the participant
families as well as visitors.
The
Chakhesang Khilunyie and Rengma Ngadah are both harvest festivals.
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