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MIMKUUT |
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Mimkuut is
the harvest festival of the Kukis. Kukis of Nagaland celebrate this
festival on the 17th Kuki month of Tolbol (January) every
year. The celebration lasts one week. Besides Mimkuut, Kukis celebrate
Chapphou Kuut and Chavang Kuut as well as other smaller festivals. It is
believed that Mimkuut and other festivals came into being from the
fact that, in order to appease Thilha (Demon) the people offered
sacrifices and at the same time they also believed in the existence of a
Supreme God whom they called “Chung Pathen” (Heavenly God). To get the
blessing of such gods, the village medicine man (Thempu) would sacrifice
fowls to propitiate the spirit of the Demon god by performing a series
of rituals and prayer.
Tradition
handed down orally from generation to generation says that the Kukis
originated from subterranean underworld. They came out from this
underworld in search of better land. |
They brought
with them a number of cereals such as miller, topiaca, beans, yam etc.
After they came overground they found paddy and job’s tears together,
which were brought across river called Twinanhem by a pair of wild rats
on a bamboo sheath (Stipule) tucked in their mouths. Gradually they
found Mithun from a place called Sisep, Pig from Bonnol and Fowl from
Molkon which they domesticated. They would lavishly use these animals
during such festivals. Thus the cultivation of job’s tears started. They
found that it was more productive and yielded a better harvest. The
celebration of the completion of the year’s harvest is done with the
instruction and guidance of the village Medicineman (Thempu). On that
day, for the entire village, the Medicineman would chant incantations to
the God for the rich harvest and invoke the spirit for more abundant
harvests in the coming years. The Mimkuut is essentially a wrap-up of
the year-long toils of the land. The celebration is marked by feasting
and drinking of Madhu (rice-beer). The youths engage themselves in
various types of merrymaking and fetching of water and firewood.
Traditional sports like wrestling and other games and different kinds of
tamashas continue throughout the day and night. The older people sit by
the fire-side singing traditional songs and the more enthusiastic ones
dance and crack jokes from time to time.
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Peren District Unit, Nagaland.
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