Dubbed the Land of Festivals, our state creates a yearlong atmosphere of celebrations with each tribe celebrating their unique culture through festivals that fall on different times of the year. The downside to witnessing these many festivals and with such frequency may condition one’s mind to dismiss them as nothing more than a mere excuse to drink, sing some folk songs and make merry and the gravity and significance of the event may be lost, especially amongst the younger lot.
While we cannot control the way in which different people chose to observe and celebrate the festivals, it is important that we do not underestimate their importance to our society and culture because the layers of significant cultural importance that makes up these festivals are a representative of our belief system, our way of life, our history and our identity; besides strengthening our sense of community.
Our folk festivals provide an effective way to promote and preserve our culture, especially the intangible cultural assets such as cultural knowledge, customs, expressions and core values embedded in our traditional customs and practices, which are all transmitted orally through generations. Our folk dances, songs and costumes are also equally important aspects of both tangible and intangible assets that needs to be preserved and displayed and what better way than festivals to do the same.
The Moatsu festival organized by the Ao Senden in collaboration with Fazl Ali College is a laudable effort where in we see a number of novel ways and activities in an attempt to attract and engage the community in celebrating the most notable festival of the Ao community. Besides the usual display of folk dances and songs and the indigenous games and food stalls, the cultural cosplay, promotion of Ao literature through prepared speech and spelling bee competitions in Ao were some noteworthy events that deserves appreciation and look out for.
While there are always pros and cons to everything, critics may well come up with countable reasons to discourage the celebration of festivals, with valid reasons no doubt; however, for a small community like ours, celebrating festivals fosters community or hometown pride, teaches new things and strengthens relationships which are all social benefits that makes for healthy communities, if channelled the right way.
On that note, Mokokchung Times extends Moatsu greetings to all of our valued readers and encourages all to partake in the celebration with an open mind and zeal to learn and participate in promoting and preserving our rich cultural heritage.