Garo community in Nagaland celebrates “Wangala” Festival with great enthusiasm

Dimapur – Celebration is a way of life for the people in the northeast. Recently, the Garo community in Nagaland celebrated the Wangala Festival in Dimapur with great enthusiasm.

Around hundred of Garos gathered at Samaguri Village in Dimapur to celebrate Wangala Festival, which is the most significant post harvest festival.

It is a  thanksgiving ceremony to Misi Saljong, also known as Pattigipa Ra’rongipa (The Great Giver) for having blessed the human beings with rich harvest of the season.

Many young boys and girls, in their traditional attires performed a Folk dance with drum beats during the festival.

“We Garo people celebrate the Wangala Festival in order to invoke the blessing of God (Misi Saljong) and Goddess so that we could enjoy the festival after reaping the harvest. And it is also a merry making and get to together,” said Sajeev Momin.

During the event, they also sang traditional songs and performed the daily activities of the tribe.

One of the main attractions of the event was the performances of the old-age games by the youth. It provided the youth a chance to find out more about their culture.

“ It’s a great pleasure to be here. Through this festival, I have learnt many new things for the first time I saw different kinds of our traditional games and all these games are new to me and I have learnt it today so it’s a great privilege for me,” said Cliff Sangma, a youth.

“It’s very important to celebrate this festival because now days many youngsters tend to forget our own culture and tradition so by celebrating such festival we can revive or trying recollect the practices or activities which had done by our forefathers,” added Sharmila Momin.

Such festivals not just showcase the vibrancy of the regional culture but also spread awareness among people from other states.