Participants in the Chapchur Kut festival
Aizawl, Feb 19 : The Mizoram government is gearing up with gusto and fanfare for the Chapchar Kut festival (which celebrates sowing of seeds) on March 4.
The highlights of the government-sponsored festival will be cultural performances and exhibitions of paintings, photographs and handicrafts in a delighful blend of tradition and modernity.
Mizoram’s art and culture minister P.C. Zoram Sangliana today said his department would celebrate the festival in an elaborate manner, involving people from all walks of life in the folk extravaganza.
Governor Lt Gen. (retd) M.M. Lakhera will be the chief guest at the state-sponsored festival to be held at Ramhlun Sports Complex here.
The Consul General at the US Consulate General, Calcutta, Beth A. Paine, would be the guest of honour.
Sangliana said his department was in the midst of frenetic preparations to hold the festival in this hilltop capital town and the seven district headquarters.
He said the highlights of the celebrations would be a display of paintings and photographs for the public at the Assembly annexe from February 28 to March 5. The paintings and photographs will depict Mizo traditional values, which are still tied up with the Mizo way of life.
There will also be an exhibition of handicrafts, handlooms and tapestry. Locally available exotic flowers like anthurium, roses and orchids will also be sold at the venue.
Chapchar Kut is a festival of joy for the Mizos. According to late R.L. Thanzawna, a former director of Mizoram government’s information and public relations department and an author of repute, Chapchar Kut is one of the four Mizo folk festivals.
It literally means celebration during the gap in farming when bamboo and other trees, which are cut to prepare jhum fields, wait to become dry. It is a joyous medley of enthralling songs and dances in which all the popular Mizo crooners and bands take part.
In the past, there used to be much merriment with the home-brewed Zu or Mizo liquors which used to flow in plenty. But this has become a legacy since the Liquor Prohibition Act came into effect.
Mizo historians say the origin of the festival, can be traced to 1450 AD-1700 AD.
Former chief minister and MNF leader Zoramthanga said, “Chapchar Kut is reckoned to be an important medium through which Mizos express to the outside world that they are united and will remain so in future.”
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