Mizos practice what is known as ‘Jhum
Cultivation’. They slash down the jungle, burn the trunks and leaves and
cultivate the land. All their other activities revolve around the jhum operations
and their festivals are all connected with such agriculture operations.
Mim Kut :
It takes place in August-September in the wake of harvesting of the maize crop,
is celebrated with great gaiety and merriment expressed through singing, dancing,
feasting and drinking of home made rice beer zu. Dedicated to the memory of
their dead relatives, the festival is underlined by a spirit of thanksgiving
and remembrance of the years first harvest is placed as an offering on a raised
platform built to the memory of the dead.
Pawl Kut :
Pawl Kut is Harvest Festival - celebrated during December to January. Again,
a mood of thanksgiving is evident, because the difficult task of titling and
harvesting is over. Community feasts are organised and dances are performed.
Mothers with their children sit on memorial platform and feed one another. This
custom, which is also performed during Chapchar Kut, is known as 'Chawnghnawt'.
Drinking of zu is also part of the festival. The two-day is followed by a day
of complete rest when no one goes out to work.
Chapchar Kut :
Of all the Kuts of the Mizo, Chapchar Kut has emerged as the most popular and
enjoyable, owing perhaps to the humorous stories of its origin and the favourable
time when the festival is observed-Spring !
Long, long ago, so the history goes, when the Lusheis lived in the famous village
of Seipui, a group of brave youngmen of the village ventured out into the deep
forest to hunt for wild animals. After a long and tiresome hunting, the party
came back empty-handed and without any trophy. But the chief had a bright idea.
To cover their embarrassment and discomfiture of the party, he arranged a grand
feast by killing a number of animals. The entire community was invited to partake
the feast. The people responded to the gesture in good spirit and joined the
feast by contributing whatever they had- some came with their home-brewed pots
of beer, some men came with small pots, some with bigger pots of beer and so,
there war plenty of rice-beer to go round to enliven singing, some clapping
their hands and some got on their feet and started dancing on the village court-yard.
The feast which was arranged by the chief became a veritable impromptu festival.
Thus, CHAPCHAR KUT was born.
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