Covid lockdown mars Bohag Bihu celebrations in Assam

Covid-19: Bohag Bihu, or Rongali Bihu, is Assam’s biggest festival and marks the onset of spring and the beginning of the Assamese new year and involves feasting.

The Assam government has asked the public to follow the Covid-19 lockdown guidelines by staying indoors and directed Bohag Bihu committees to restrict their celebrations of the week-long festivities beginning Monday to just ceremonial hoisting of flags.

Assamese woman filling bamboo tubes with traditional home-made curd (buffalo milk curd) ahead of Rangali Bihu Festival and Assamese New Year celebration at Bum-Beseria Village in Tezpur on Sunday. (ANI)

Bohag Bihu, or Rongali Bihu, is Assam’s biggest festival and marks the onset of spring and the beginning of the Assamese new year and involves feasting.

The Bihu celebrations start with Goru Bihu when cattle are bathed and worshipped. Most rituals will be restricted with the social distancing norms in place to check the spread of Covid-19.

“I request all Bihu committees to conclude this year’s programme by hoisting flags in presence of not more than 5 persons,” Assam health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said.

Bihu is marked by preparing of sweets and delicacies called pitha and laru and making of gamochas (traditional towels) in handlooms, which are distributed among loved ones. Month-long cultural programmes are held to mark the festivities across the state.

In Guwahati, 26 committees announced the cancellation of Bihu cultural programmes on March 20 five days before the national lockdown was implemented.

All Assam Students Union (AASU), which has been holding Mukoli Bihu (open Bihu) in Guwahati since 1982, has decided to do away with the event this year. It will not hoist the Bihu flag either to mark the festivities.

“Let us all resolve this Bohag to fight the menace of coronavirus unitedly. Let us maintain all rules and safety measures. Only then we will be able to win this battle,” AASU general secretary Lurinjyoti Gogoi said.

Assam has recorded 29 Covid-19 cases till date. A 65-year-old person died of the disease on Friday at Silchar.