The festival of colour is on Yaoshang greetings to Manipur
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One of the biggest festivals in Manipur and what makes Yaoshang all that more beautiful is the increasing secular identity it has managed to carve out for itself. A festival which is today not identified with only the Vaishnavite Hindus, the Meiteis in this case, but a time for everyone to soak in the spirit of the colour and merry making and this is perhaps where the innate beauty of the festival lies. Yet at the same time, one cannot help but note the change in the way the festival is celebrated down the decades. Those who grew up in the 70s, 80s and the 90s will look back wistfully to those days when child like innocence and the joy of going door to door for Naka Theng marked the evening, the moment after the Yaoshang Meithaba. Beautiful it was to see young boys and girls, in twos and at times in threes and dressed in their finest Yaoshang attire going around to enter each and every single household in the locality for Naka Theng. Today the number of children going for Naka Theng has gone down considerably and the ‘beauty of it all’ seems to be missing. Maybe it is the wind of change, but the sense of social solidarity, the closeness of neighbours, the ‘freedom’ to enter the compound of each and every single household, is starkly missing and it should say something profound that it has taken a festival like Yaoshang to bring to the fore the close knit society that defined life ‘once upon a time’. Back in the 70s, 80s and 90s, not every house was as well lit as it is now, and a kerosene lamp (the hurricane lamp or the palang) was all that was available to light up the house, but the energy, the warmth and the community sense that the flickering light from the lamp emanated is something which electric bulbs available in each household today cannot emit. Ultimately it is the human spirit, the spirit that says ‘we all belong to each other,’ that seems to be sadly missing today and it should say something profound that such a line of thought has been triggered by the Yaoshang that one sees today as compared to the Yaoshang one experienced, three or four decades back. Back then, Yaoshang was not only about Naka Theng but also had a day, the last day of the festival, when young boys would tie a basket on a thin bamboo stick and visit each house, with the slogan, ‘Cheng Chak, Hawai Happiyu’ to be rounded off with a blessing for the family. The ecstasy in hearing the sound of rice being poured into the basket, the joy of seeing potatoes gifted and put into the basket all came with a good dose of innocence, the innocence that one associates with childhood a good three or four decades back. Where has this innocence gone ? A question one may ask, even as everyone gets ready to celebrate the festival of colour.
It is not only colours that one can think of when one talks about Yaoshang. The leikai level sports held at every locality during the festival should be seen and appreciated beyond the sports per se and acknowledge that organising such a meet provides the right platform for people to promote social bonding. A sort of providing a space for the not so young and elders of society to come out, stretch their legs and mingle among themselves and discuss everything that can be discussed, ranging from the current situation, the water shortage faced in different locality, the state of the leikai roads and yes the political situation. This time more so since Manipur would be going to polls sometime in the early part of 2027. A perfect platform and space for the elders and the youngsters to meet and sort of socialise. A point which has not been discussed widely, but which is there and which has gone to promote social bonding amongst the people. And any talk on Yaoshang would be incomplete without referring to Thabal Chongba. Time was when this was never an issue, but significant it is to see that in the last ten or fifteen years, Thabal Chongba has been in the focus of many, with each one having their own understanding. The curfew hour announced for Thabal Chongba, the dos and don’ts that have been issued, the appeal from some section, and all of these taken together go on to give a distinct character to Thabal Chongba and obviously to Yaoshang festival itself. Happy Yaoshang to everyone.
It is not only colours that one can think of when one talks about Yaoshang. The leikai level sports held at every locality during the festival should be seen and appreciated beyond the sports per se and acknowledge that organising such a meet provides the right platform for people to promote social bonding. A sort of providing a space for the not so young and elders of society to come out, stretch their legs and mingle among themselves and discuss everything that can be discussed, ranging from the current situation, the water shortage faced in different locality, the state of the leikai roads and yes the political situation. This time more so since Manipur would be going to polls sometime in the early part of 2027. A perfect platform and space for the elders and the youngsters to meet and sort of socialise. A point which has not been discussed widely, but which is there and which has gone to promote social bonding amongst the people. And any talk on Yaoshang would be incomplete without referring to Thabal Chongba. Time was when this was never an issue, but significant it is to see that in the last ten or fifteen years, Thabal Chongba has been in the focus of many, with each one having their own understanding. The curfew hour announced for Thabal Chongba, the dos and don’ts that have been issued, the appeal from some section, and all of these taken together go on to give a distinct character to Thabal Chongba and obviously to Yaoshang festival itself. Happy Yaoshang to everyone.