BARIPADA: If you walk through the lanes of any village of tribal-dominated Mayurbhanj district during this season, you would most certainly notice the well decorated huts and courtyards all ready for the Sohrai festival.
Sohrai or the Cattle festival, observed mostly by the Santhals, started yesterday, coinciding with the Kali puja celebrations, and will end tomorrow. However, in some places, the festival will continue for another four days.
The three-day-long festival begins with the cleaning of the cowshed. The shed is briskly cleaned and smeared with cow dung water. Then Alpana or the traditional floral patterns are made on the floor with a paste of coloured rice flour on the cow sheds.
The women of the house sprinkle water on the cattle from a pot with the help of mango leaves, while the head of the family anoints the horns of the animals with oil and vermilion. Oil lamps are lit in the cowsheds throughout the night.
In Mayurbhanj, it is commonly called Bandhna. It is the biggest and most important festival of the Santhals, said Sahiba Sushil Chandra Hansda, a tribal poet of Bamanghaty sub-division of Mayurbhanj district.
‘’The extravaganza reflects the community’s respect and gratitude for their cattle by honouring them,’’ Hansda added.
The community wash their agricultural tools like ploughs, yokes and anoint them with powdered rice and vermilion.
At midnight, the villagers sing and dance around the cowsheds, he further said.
Santhali scholars said that during the festival, besides offering prayers to the cows, the tribe also devote a day for thanksgiving to the Rain God and Sun God, for helping the community reap a good harvest, scholars pointed out.