cultural
When it happens
November
Celebrated from Chhath Puja to Kartik Purnima (November). Region: Mithila, Bihar.
A sweet festival honoring the bond between brothers and sisters through clay bird figurines and traditional theatrical folk songs.
In the Puranic tale, Krishna's daughter Sama was falsely accused and cursed to become a bird, and freed by the devotion of her brother Chakeva. The festival celebrates this bond between brothers and sisters.
Unmarried girls craft colourful clay birds and figures - the Sama-Chakeva - worship them, and sing folk songs each evening. On the final day the idols are immersed in the fields or the river.
Each evening the girls set their clay birds in a basket and sing folk songs. On the last day the brothers break and immerse the clay figures in the fields - a rite tied to the brother-sister bond.
Celebrating the festival is believed to lengthen a brother's life, and it doubles as a welcome to the migratory birds arriving in Mithila at this season.
The festival finds mention in the Puranas and has been kept alive as a folk celebration of Mithila culture for thousands of years.
A Mithila festival about sisters and brothers, kept in the weeks after Chhath. Girls make small clay birds, keep them in baskets, sing to them across several evenings, and break them at the end to see the sisters off. It happens in courtyards, and the songs are the whole of it.
Churdah represents the mythological villain who spread false rumors. Burning his paper-and-clay mustache symbolizes the community's collective rejection of negative speech and gossip.
cultural
Across Mizoram, with the main celebrations held in Aizawl.
cultural
The ancient Pattadakal Temple Complex (a UNESCO World Heritage Site), situated beautifully along the Malaprabha River, Bagalkot district, Karnataka.
cultural
The open-air festival grounds at Weiking Field, Jaiaw, Shillong, East Khasi Hills district, Meghalaya.
cultural
Naga Heritage Village in Kisama, located near Kohima, Nagaland.
cultural
Udaipur, Mewar vistar, Rajasthan.
cultural
Set in Dhordo and across the expansive Great Rann of Kutch salt desert in Gujarat.
cultural
Shey Manla, situated beautifully on the rocky banks of the Indus River, approximately 8 km from Leh, Ladakh.
cultural
Villages of Mokokchung district, Nagaland - the heartland of the Ao Naga tribe.
