Chapchar Kut

The biggest, most joyful bamboo-clearing spring festival of the Mizo people, featuring the spectacular Cheraw dance.

The Mizo ancestors began the festival as a joyful interlude after the hard work of clearing the bamboo forests (jhum clearing) was done and the sowing season awaited.

People dress in traditional Mizo attire such as the Puanchei. The centrepiece is the Cheraw (bamboo dance), and traditional Mizo dishes of vegetables and rice are shared.

Village chiefs and elders open the festival, followed by a grand parade in which the tribes display their traditional dress and weaponry.

Celebrating Chapchar Kut is believed to strengthen village unity and please the ancestors' spirits, bringing abundance to the coming crop. The days are set aside for setting sorrow aside and celebrating joy.

The festival originated in Seipui village around the 15th-16th century. It lapsed for a period and was revived in Aizawl in 1962 as a modern cultural celebration.

Mizoram's spring festival, in early March, after the jhum fields are cleared and before sowing starts. The dance to watch is Cheraw: men clap long bamboo poles together on the ground in rhythm while women step in and out of the closing gaps. Aizawl holds the largest of it, and a seat means arriving early.