Celebration of vibrant festival of the Angami tribe of Nagaland

The state of Nagaland is one of the beautiful places in Northeast India, which is bounded by Myanmar in the east, Assam in the West, Arunachal Pradesh and a part of Assam in the North with Manipur in the south. It has a number of cultures and tribes and because of this, the state celebrates a number of festivals which are of prior importance to them. The state is also ideal for rural tourism as it promotes s number of tribal festivals, mountain treks, homestays etc. It is a great place to visit and enjoy these festivals

The Sekrenyi festival is considered a major festival of the Angami tribe which is a 10-day celebration. The festival is also called Phousnyi by the Angamis and is celebrated in order to signify purification and sanctification before going to war. A ritual is performed which is known as Kizie, in which a few drops of rice water are extracted from the top of a big jug called Zumho and are put into leaves. However, the most important ceremony is performed on the eighth day, where bridge-pulling or gate-pulling is performed.

Two days before the festival the people collect firewood and on the next day, animals are hunted for the preparation of the feast for the festival. After this, the main celebration commences

The male members of the families clean the wells outside the village, and for this work, only the young and the pure bachelor boys are allowed to do this work. On the first day of the festival the men go and take a bath from the same well. As for the women, they are not allowed to fetch water from the well on that day. After the men take a bath they sacrifice a chicken

The young boys are only allowed to be a part of this celebration after they have attained the age of 6-7 years and they should make their first sacrifice of a cock and not chicken

However, on the fourth day, a three-day session of singing and feasting begins and the best part of the festival is during Thekra Hie, where young people of the village sing traditional songs throughout the day

The people also prepare rice beer, which is then filled in jugs and is served with meats to the people of the village. On the seventh day, young men go for hunting and the hunt is then enjoyed in a feast

The most important ceremony falls on the eighth day where people perform bridge-pulling or gate-pulling, and no one is allowed to go to the field during this time