Zeliangrong youths perform a dance during Gaan Ngai in Imphal on Friday. Picture by Eastern Projections

Imphal, Jan. 9: A post-harvest festival of a Naga tribe that got erased by the steady invasion of Christianity, showed the first signs of revival today when scores gathered at an Imphal auditorium for a round of pagan revelry.

Gaan Ngai is a festival of the Zeliangrong community, which has the second largest concentration in Manipur after the Tangkhuls.

“Modern education and conversion to Christianity is threatening to push several age-old rituals to extinction. Certain institutions are revived only during Gaan Ngai festival,” said Golmei Lanbilung, executive secretary of Zeliangrong Religious Council.

One of these “institutions” is the system of Zeliangrong boys and girls living in dormitories till they are married.

Lok Sabha MP from Outer Manipur constituency, Mani Charenamei, who is also a member of the Zeliangrong community, agreed that the younger generation no longer practises the old religious rituals.

Several people have even destroyed ornaments and materials used by their forefathers, who practised Tingkao Ragwang Chapriak religion, after they converted to Christianity.

Conversions, in fact, gave rise to controversies.

In December last year, a conflict erupted in Chingmeirong Kabui, a Zeliangrong village in Imphal East, after a church was dismantled by non-Christians.

The mood at the Iboyaima Shumang Leela auditorium, where the Gaan Ngai festival was organised today, however, was one of pure jubilation.

Young artistes in bright, colourful traditional clothes sang and danced after a round of religious renditions.

“The main objective of the festival is to pay homage to departed souls, pray for a better year, show respect to all and preserve and promote old traditions, rituals and rites for posterity,” Lanbilung said.

Health minister Pheiroijam Parijat Singh, who attended the programme, goaded all to live in harmony.