Assam: Markets in Guwahati abuzz with festive spirit ahead of Rongali Bihu

Shops are adorned with traditional items like food, Gamosas, Bihu clothes, dhools, pepa, and Assamese Japis.

Rongali Bihu, also known as Bohag Bihu, is celebrated across Assam in the second week of April. This year, the festivities will be observed on April 14 and 15.

People are flocking to markets to buy traditional food items, including pitha (rice cakes), fresh cream, creamy curds, a variety of laddus, jaggery, Gamosas, and ethnic clothes.

A local shopper said, "We are here to buy things related to Bihu. We have prepared some of the things at home, and we are also buying some of them. The Bihu will begin tomorrow. There will be a Bihu dance and a Bihu program. In villages, the Bihu dance is performed in the farming fields."

In the run-up to the festival, Guwahati Bihu Sanmilan organised a Bihu dance workshop at Chandmari Field. Around 500 girls from across the city participated.

Organisers said the aim was to train the younger generation in traditional Bihu dance and promote Assamese culture.

Rongali Bihu marks the onset of the agricultural season and is celebrated with great enthusiasm.

Rongali Bihu is a multi-day festival that typically spans seven days, each day known as 'Xaat Bihu.'

The celebration involves various cultural activities, traditional rituals, and feasting.

On the first day of Rongali Bihu - the cattle are washed, and smeared with a paste of fresh turmeric, black lentil, etc while people sing to them - "Lao kha, bengena kha, bosore bosore barhi ja, maar xoru, baper xoru, toi hobi bor bor goru (Eat gourd, eat brinjal, grow from year to year, your mother is small, your father is small, but you be a large one)" and then the people also worship the cattle.