Sunday, April 10, 2011

Chad Sukra

Today was the celebration of a local festival called Chad Sukra in Jowai. Jowai which boundaries within the Jaintia Hills district, is the second largest town in Meghalaya. Chad Sukra (chad meaning dance) is a spring pre-sowing festival celebrated by the Niamtres (non- Christians) of the Jaintias.
Dancing on the traditional beats and songs praying for a successful sowing of paddy and a fruitful harvest, everyone from kids to elders were dressed in the traditional wear of thohsaru- the black and white checkered waist cloth woven in eri silk, jainkyrshah- muga silk woven draping fabric with red borders, iu spung- the cotton turban and jainkup- eri shawl with beautiful traditional beaded jewellery. Some of the traditional dances are named Laho, Kyndai, Nongrep and Pasteih. Some people carried these humungous paper flower bouquets which symbolize the the season of spring and is also an icon for a healthy and fruitful harvest.
I tried taking some random pictures of the festival and some very pretty young Jaintia girls in their traditional attire.
Happy Chad Sukra!!

2 comments:

dening said... [Reply]

Chad sukra festival
I realy like to know now adays people from different parts of the country know our festival, we should hv to preserve it as our forefather giv us evrything esply religion, cuz religion is going along with festival together, i can say dat people witout religion is useles in this beautiful world. God create everythng here as different people n different faith but God is One. Long live Niamtre Religion.....

Aarti Badamikar said... [Reply]

Glad you happened to browse thru this post. Thanks for your comment :)
Festivals of Meghalaya was a part of my study when I was there on a textile research for two months.