Holi celebration in Imphal
Holi which is one of the main festival of Hindu is celebrated with much enthusiasm in Imphal, the capital of Manipur. The other districts of Manipur are inhabited by people following Christianity. In Imphal, holi celebration extends for five days.
Like in the other places, Holi celebration begins on the dusk of the first day with the burning of the straw shack made especially for the occasion. As soon as it is burnt down, small children who are eagerly waiting for the ceremony then goes in groups in every house in the locality seeking donations. They would continue seeking donations for the next three days, usually in the early morning and in the evening; the time in between is devoted to playing around. It has also become a tradition for the married daughters to visit the parental house during holi to give money to their younger siblings, nephews, nieces.
Unlike earlier times, celebrations with colours has toned down. People still play with colours and water but as people are becoming more and more health and beauty concious, playing with colours have somewhat lost its fervours. Instead, more efforts are given to other activities- sports, being one of them.
Traditionally, the youth would organise sports events in their localities. These events would begin the morning after the shack has been burnt down. Apart from the usual track and field events, games like musical chair, tug-of-war, spoon race, blind hit etc are quite popular. The crowd puller in most of the localities is however the banana stem climbing competitions by the boys. In this competition, the participants vie to reach the top of the banana stem that has been smeared with the lubricants. The upper part of the bodies of the participants are also often smeared with oils. The successful participant get to keep the money which is kept at the top of the stem.
Most of the localities encourage women participations and organise special events for them like musical chair, tug of war,marathon etc. competitions in the cultural programmes are usually kept for the early evening.
But holi celebration in Manipur is incomplete without taking part in the 'thabal chongba'. It is a folk dance which is suppose to be done at the moonlight. However, modern touch has been given to it nowadays and it is dance under the tube-lights. The dance would be organised in one of the evening. The dancers would move in round, holding hands and dancing all the way to the beat of the drums. Earlier people would dance till late at night. But nowadays it is restricted to 10 p.m.
However the spirit of celebration continues notwithstanding the restrictions.
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