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The largest festivals

Festivals of Nagaland


Festival calendar

There is always a reason to celebrate

Nagaland’s festivals are mostly directly related to the agricultural calendar. Themes are often the strengthening of the community or honoring and invoking the fertility of Mother Earth. Typical for a festival day in Nagaland is a repetitive program, often with group singing and dancing with the participation of the entire village population. Each tribe has its own individual traditions, which are expressed at the festivals in the form of folk songs, dances, traditional sports, special food and drink.

The Nagas’ enormous wealth of songs and dances often focus on the worship of the headhunter and warrior. In addition, heroic stories, fertility and the praise of one’s own group, its beauty, strength, courage and power. Unity and togetherness are also the focus of many dance forms, in which the dancers demonstrate their interdependence through their position, for example, by performing joint balance and equilibrium formations. The aim of these representations is often to convey eternity and unity with nature. In Nagaland, people dance and sing on all occasions. The most important festivals of the various tribes:

Name of the trunkDistrictMain festivalDate
AngamiKohimaSekrenyiFebruary 25
RengmaKohimaNgadaNovember 27
ZeliangPerenMileinyiMarch 11
KukiPerenMimkutJanuary 17
KachariDimapurBushuLate January
ChakhesangPhekThsukhenyie/SukrenvuMay 6 / January 15
LochurnPhekYemsheOctober 5
ChangTuensangNkanyulemJuly 13
AoMokokchungMoatsuMay 2
KonyakMonAolingApril 13
LhomLonglengMonyuApril 1
KhiamniungamTuensangMiuMay 5
VimchungerTuensang/KiphireMetumniuAugust 8
SangtamTuensang/KiphireMongmongSeptember 3
LothaWokhaTokhu EmongNovember 7
SumiTuluniZunhebotoJuly 8
All 16 tribesKohimaHornbill FestivalDecember 1 - 7