Longsa Village in Mokokchung District will witness a significant cultural occasion as it prepares to host the Tsüngremmung Festival 2025 from August 1 to 3. Following a prolonged interruption due to the COVID-19 pandemic and other limiting factors, this year’s event is anticipated to be a large-scale celebration, showcasing the cultural richness, traditional practices, and communal spirit of the Ao Naga people. Organized by the Longsa Village Council under the patronage of the Tourism Department, Government of Nagaland, the festival aims to highlight the essence of Ao Naga identity through traditional customs, cultural performances, and collective community participation.
Tsüngremmung, one of the most significant traditional festivals of the Ao Nagas, is celebrated ahead of the harvest season, symbolizing thanksgiving, unity, and renewal. Historically, it was a time when villagers came together in collective labor and rejoicing after completing the sowing season. With its roots in agrarian life, Tsüngremmung marks not only a spiritual cleansing but also social bonding, oral traditions, and cultural sharing through songs, dances, and feasts. It reflects the rich cultural practices passed down by our forefathers—generation after generation—as the community strives to preserve these traditions by observing the festival with its true essence and meaning. This festival is not just a celebration but a living expression of our heritage—keeping alive the values, stories, and identity that define us as Ao Naga.
This year’s celebration at Longsa Village is expected to be lively and inclusive, with a strong emphasis on traditional customs and community participation. The event will be graced by Shri G. Kaito Aye, Hon’ble Minister, PWD (R&B), Nagaland, as the Chief Guest; Shri Imkong L. Imchen, Hon’ble Advisor, Information & Public Relations, Soil and Water Conservation, as the Guest of Honor and Shri Imkongmar, MLA, Hon’ble Advisor, Minority Affairs & Sericulture, as the Honored Guest.
The three-day celebration will begin with Süngben Mung (Preparation Day) on August 1, featuring traditional activities like the collection of firewood and vines, cleaning of homes, and pounding of rice, culminating in a cultural competition in the evening. The main celebration, Yatimung, on August 2 will include the ceremonial pulling of vines, tug-of-war between men and women, cultural dances, community feasting, and all-night singing of Kimak. The final day, Aien Lenpi, on August 3, will focus on traditional practices by unmarried men such as bonfires, village cleaning, and final community feasts.
Longsa Village is home to several cultural attractions and heritage sites that reflect its deep historical roots and unique traditions. Among them is Longkakak, a historic cave formed by natural boulders, and Koralong, the legendary “stone that used to crow.” The village also features Longsa Long, believed to be the symbolic gateway to the afterlife, and Ko Kongki, a traditional stringed instrument crafted from the hair of trophy heads. Another notable site is Awatzü Pond, associated with oral narratives from the Sangpuyimti era. Visitors to Longsa can also enjoy panoramic views of the surrounding landscape from Yimpenzükong, making the village not just a cultural destination but a scenic retreat rich in folklore and ancestral significance.
Significance of Tsüngremmung:
The essence of Tsüngremmung is sanctification of the self and society for obtaining blessings from God. It has a strong bearing on community building as the entire village comes together to work, earn, save, and eventually share in the feasts that accompany the festival. Preparations for the festival actually start during the cultivation season, when the Zünga (age groups) work the fields to collect for the Zünga Yongya (age group feasts), held during Tsüngremmung. Tsüngremmung thus evolved as a festival where, along with feasting, oral traditions and knowledge were passed from one generation to another through songs and dance, and community life was enhanced through sharing.
The origin:
In the days of old—when men abided close to God—there lived a man named Merangshang. He was hard-working and devoted much of his time to working his field. Tsüngremshang cultivated the field adjacent to his. While Merangshang toiled endlessly, he observed that Tsüngremshang worked only occasionally, and yet, at harvest time, his field yielded abundant grains. Observing this amazing phenomenon, Merangshang befriended Tsüngremshang and asked him his secret. Tsüngremshang revealed that he could communicate with God and that during the cultivation period he would purify himself, and just before harvest time, he performed a ritual to propitiate God, asking for His blessings. Merangshang also decided to follow in his neighbor’s footsteps, and in the following years, they observed the same worship, and both received abundant harvests.
Merangshang passed on this knowledge of propitiating ‘Longditsüngba’ (translated as ‘god the provider) for an abundant harvest to the rest of his village. Slowly, it gained a growing number of practitioners, and soon the entire village started coming together to offer thanksgiving in the form of a festival that came to be known as Tsüngremmung (named after the man who started the ritual). Eventually the entire Ao tribe began observing this festival.
As the years passed, the flowering of the white blossoms of ‘Songsaben’ below Chungliyimti was taken to herald the festival. Since the blossoms were first sighted from Longsa village, Tsüngremmung was therefore celebrated first at Longsa and only then observed in the other Ao villages. So the festival is also referred to as Longsamung.
About Longsa:
The Ao Naga village of Longsa is situated southeast of Mokokchung, adjoining the Zunheboto and Tuensang districts. Set amid rolling hills, which reflect the azure of the cloudless skies above, the village affords visitors breathtaking vistas of its green surrounds. A colorful and vibrant people, the men and women of Longsa deeply treasure their ancestral legacy, as is evident in the way they live their lives …with a strong sense of pride. Longsa is one of the most prominent villages in the Ao country. It has produced a lot of luminaries and leaders who have immensely contributed in various fields. Seeing the immense potential of Longsa village, the Government of Nagaland declared Longsa as a Tourist Village in the year 2006. Ever since, Longsa has remained on the world map as a tourist destination for visitors from all over the world, with more and more tourists visiting the village every year.
Published by:
Media Cell, Longsa Tsüngremmung Festival 2025
