|
The Rengmas celebrate eight days of Ngada
festival towards the end of November. This festival is
celebrated just after harvest, as a mark of thanksgiving,
merrymaking and rejoicing. This festival also marks the end of
the agricultural year.
On the first day, , rice beer is prepared by every household and
banana leaves are collected for the Ngada feast on the second
day. Graves of relatives are visited by the womenfolk and
rice beer wrapped in banana leaves are offered at their graves
as a symbolic presentation of
offering to the departed soul on the third day. On the fourth
day, all the male members gather at their-
|
respective khel
morungs called 'RENSI' early in the morning with their own rice
beer and meat and have their meal there. At mid-day, the men folk
adorned in their ceremonial fineries go round the
village with the women following them, carrying rice beer. The fifth day witnesses all the
men folk going in procession,
visiting all the houses and singing songs. On the sixth day, all
members of the village visit each other's houses, eat and drink
and make merry. On the seventh day, all the villagers goes to
the forest for collecting firewood, banana leaves and vegetables
for the grand Ngada feast which is arranged on the eight day.
The whole village population partake of the feast. On this day, three rites are performed. |
|

|
One is the peace
agreement with fire in order to avoid fire accident in the
village.
The second is the agreement with rats, so that they do
not destroy the crops and the third rite is performed to expel
evil spirits from the village. Thus, the eight day long Ngada
festival of the Rengmas culminate. |