Festivals in Mizoram

In Mizoram, there are three main festivals in a year. Festivals are called Kut in Mizo language. The three Kuts are Chapchar Kut, Mim Kut and Pawl Kut. All the three festivals are connected with agricultural activities. The festivals are celebrated with feasts and dances.

Chapchar Kut

Chapchar Kut was celebrated after completion of the cutting of jhums. It was a thanksgiving festival. The villagers faced many dangers and difficulties in cutting down dense forests with their simple Daos and axes. They would organise a big feast in the month of March to celebrate the success in jhum cutting.

The festival continued for seven days and even beyond if the villagers would afford it. A few days before the day is fixed for the festivities, hunting parties from the village would go out in the forests and rivers for hunting wild animals, trapping birds and catching fish. On this occasion Zu would be brewed in a large quantity.

On the first day of the festival, pigs would be killed by the members of the chief’s clan for the feast. Pork in big quantities would be eaten and lot of Zu would be consumed. This day was called Lushai Vawk Tlah Ni which literally means the day on which the Lushias kill pigs.

On the second day, members of the other clans in the village would kill their pigs for the village feast. On the third day, which was known as Kut day, Zu would be taken in the houses in which someone had died during the year. On this day before sunset in the evening people particularly mother and children dressed in their best would gather in the open space in the village at the Lungdawh, which is a stone platform put up as a memorial to the dead, bringing with them rice, boiled eggs and meat.