Kati Bihu (Kongali Bihu)
Wednesday, October 18, 2023
September-October in Assam is a period of strain for the farming fraternity. Their granaries, mostly, go empty forcing them to keep waiting for the new crops to be harvested. Precisely, then they find an occasion to celebrate the “Kongali” Bihu with religious tradition with less pomp and gaiety across the state where the economy is an agriculture based. Literally the word “Kangali” stands for poor. The annual event takes place when the crops start growing in the paddy field after months of back breaking labour.
On this less festive occasion, the farmers go to their paddy fields and lit up earthen lamps to worship the goddess of wealth. In some parts of the north eastern state, the cultivators lit up earthen lamp in the paddy fields on a long bamboo poles in the evening where the harmful insects are trapped. Every household lit up earthen lamps under the tulsi plants on the occasion seeking divine help from the goddess of wealth. These are allowed to continue for the entire month of the seventh Assamese calendar.
Rows and rows of earthen lamps in the paddy fields and in the households transform the entire state in to yet another dreamscape in the evening.
