DOOMDOOMA, April 16 - The Moran tribe, one of the aboriginal ethnic tribes of Assam who are mainly inhabitants of Dibrugarh and Tinsukia districts, doesn�t celebrate Rongali Bihu on the last day of the Assamese calendar year. Their tradition of Bihu celebration is different from other tribes.
They have been celebrating Rongali Bihu after the �Shukla Dasami Tithi� in the month of Bohag. On Tuesday, they will celebrate Uruka and from Wednesday their Bihu celebration will start.
These tribes do not celebrate Bihu only as a festival of joy and merry making; they celebrate it by following rituals and customs. At the end of the last month of the Assamese calendar year, the religious pontiffs and priests of different Satras will gather in their respective Satras and decide the dates of Bihu Namowa (starting of Bihu) and Bihu Uruwa (end of Bihu).
Accordingly Bihu Namowa ritual will be performed in the Satras. After this, Bihu Melas will be celebrated in the Namghars of different villages.
Though Bihu Uruwa ritual is generally celebrated at Satras, the Bhakats of the local Namghars can also decide the date of Bihu Uruwa ritual separately for a particular village. After this ritual, the sound of dhol, pepa is not heard in the villages.
Pradeep Kumar Moran, a local scribe of a vernacular daily, a writer and a leading youth of the tribe from Daisa-Kordoiguri area here, told this correspondent about the rituals of the Moran Bihu. According to him, Gasar Talar Bihu (Bihu dance performed under a tree) is very popular among them. In an isolated place of a village, the young girls perform Bihu dance under a tree. The boys of the village also perform Bihu dance at a distance from the girls.
Husari is not popular among the Moran people. In some places they perform Dharma Husari in which religious songs are sung in place of Bihu songs. However, such Husari is not performed every year.
Rati Bihu (Bihu performed at night) is another tradition of the Moran tribes. With the flow of time, a lot of changes have occurred in the villages of the tribes and these changes are also felt in their Bihu celebration, said Pradeep Kumar Moran.
