Meghalaya celebrates ‘Wangala’ Festival

• 16 Nov 2021

This year, Wangala Festival was started in Meghalaya on 12 November. Usually, this celebration lasts for two days, but sometimes it can continue for a week also.

• The Wangala Festival, also known as the 100 drum festival is celebrated in Meghalaya.
• It's the most important festival of the Garo tribe.
• Wangala is a post-harvest festival, when the Garos give thanks to Misi Saljong (also known as Pattigipa Ra∙rongipa), the Sun God, for blessing the people with a rich harvest. (Shad Sukra is a festival celebrated in Meghalaya every year before the sowing season by the Jaintia people. Only after the commencement of this festival that the sowing of seeds takes place).
• The celebration of the Wangala Festival marks the end of a period of toil, which brings good output of the fields. It also signifies the onset of winter.
• Wangala is celebrated with different forms of dance. These dances are performed on the tunes of folk songs that are played on drums and primitive flute (made of buffalo horns).

Ragula: On the first day of the festival, people celebrate it with a ceremony called Ragula. This ceremony is performed in the house of the village’s chief. On this day, people dress up in colourful costumes along with feathered headgears.

Kakkat: On the second day of celebration, which is called Kakkat, people begin the ceremony by dancing to the rhythms of long oval-shaped drums. In this celebration, young and old join together while men play the drums and women perform traditional dance forms. The dance form is known as Dama Dagota which is done to please God Saljong.