Nagas celebrate annual seed sowing festival of Lui-Ngai-Ni

Nagas in Manipur and Nagaland celebrated their annual seed sowing festival of Lui-Ngai-Ni, unique to their cultural.

Considered to be one of the biggest festivals for Nagas, Lui-Ngai-Ni, was celebrated in Senapati district in Manipur with pomp and gaiety, under the theme of 'Our Resources Our Future'.

Groups of young men and women belonging to various Naga tribes such as Anal, Chothe, Lamkang, Moyon, Monsang, Tarao and Maring presented their spectacular folk dances and songs.

During this festival, they invoke God to shower their blessings on the sowed seeds so that it grows to yield a bumper harvest.

“Well, traditionally this is the place where we give all our seeds to seek the blessings of the almighty creator. Here God blesses us and we expect a bumper harvest. We are expecting that this year will be better as we had a lot of snowfall in this season. We have a saying that whenever there is a snowfall, we get a better harvest. We are looking forward to that. We should not face drought but good harvest,” said Grace, president of the Naga Women's Union.

The festival was a unique one as the oldest Naga Queen, Apei Hinga of Maram Namdi village, was present to grace the occasion, by performing a ritual of seed sowing. Meanwhile, the Nagas in Dimapur district of Nagaland were also seen celebrating the festival with great fervour.

The venue looked colourful with the assemblage of young and old people in different-hued headgear, traditional costumes and ethnic ornaments. The spectators seemed mesmerised while watching different Naga tribal performances of war dances, the weaving dance and the seed-sowing dances.

A hallmark of the Lui-Ngai-Ni festival has been that it is held to promote peace, harmony and the Naga cultural identity.

“I think it is a great step, especially in bringing about unity among the Nagas living here. Interaction among the Nagas often will bring unity and harmony among them. I think it is a good effort where the Nagas of the south can come together through cultural interaction and bring in more understanding between them,” said Panti Rongmei, a spectator.

Besides the participating Naga cultural troupes, guest cultural troupes performed during the celebrations. Galaxy of Naga tribal Hoho leaders, elected representatives including government officials, women, youth and student leaders, village elders participated in the celebrations.