Bohag Bihu

Bohag Bihu, also called Rongali Bihu, welcomes the Assamese New Year and the beginning of a new agricultural cycle in spring. It is the first and most festive of Assam’s three Bihus. The celebration grows out of rural life: cattle are washed and cared for on Goru Bihu, homes and courtyards are cleaned, new clothes are worn, elders are greeted for blessings, and communities gather for Bihu songs and energetic dances. The season coincides with the time when farmers prepare fields and begin sowing, so prayers and celebration express hope for fertility, rain and a good harvest. Foods made from rice, sesame, coconut and jaggery, including pitha and laru, are shared widely. Bohag Bihu is not confined to one religious community; over time it has become a broad cultural festival through which Assamese people celebrate youth, courtship, music, hospitality, the land and the arrival of a fresh year.

Bohag Bihu is valued for devotion, family tradition and the spiritual or seasonal meaning attached to the day.

Goru Bihu first: cattle are washed in the river, rubbed with turmeric and given brinjal and gourd. Then Manuh Bihu, when the young touch the feet of the old and are given a gamosa, the woven cloth that is the state's own way of saying respect. Husori singers go house to house, and the Bihu dance runs for days.

Assam keeps three Bihus and only this one is a new year: Magh Bihu in January is the harvest feast, Kati Bihu in autumn the lean, quiet lamp in the paddy. The same solar entry is Vaisakhi in Punjab, Pohela Boishakh in Bengal and Puthandu in Tamil Nadu.