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.
Each tribe, even today, celebrates its tribal festivals with gay abandon
to keep a date with their traditions. A brief info on the festivals of
each tribe has been provided by the department for the visitors.