Meghalaya gearing up for annual Nongkrem Dance Festival

Meghalaya is all set to bring momentous smile to visitors of all ages! Come January and you will find all roads leading towards Meghalayan Nongkrem Dance Festival. Yes, not much of a wonder as this is a festival that people of Meghalaya await with excitement.

This festival known as the ‘Nongkrem dance festival,’ is celebrated to remember the event in which Shillong was established as a state and its democracy and rule of justice came into existence. It is the fruition of Khasi polity, when different administrative units decided to unify themselves under the banner of Shillong.

The festival is followed by a thanksgiving ceremony to the almighty after a good harvest and for maintaining peace and prosperity in the community. The breathtaking festival boasts of colorful dance performances. The locals of Smit in Meghalaya participate in it and perform various folk dances wearing colorful traditional attire on this occasion of their annual dance festival prior to the sowing season.

As the tradition goes, unmarried girls dance in their exotic costumes, whereas the boys perform with a spear or sword in one hand and usually a white Yak hair whisk in the other. They sway to the beats of the drums and to the tunes of the Tangmuri.

One of the important rituals of the festival is the ‘Pomblang Ceremony’, which means decapitation of goats. People offer goats to the ‘Syiem’ of Khyrem, the administrative head of the Hima.

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