The Santhals’ practice of welcoming a new season through rituals, songs and dances during the Bahabanga festival showcases their culture, and demonstrates how their lives revolve around nature and agricultural seasons.
The Bahabanga festival holds profound significance within the Santhal community. The Santhals celebrate it with vigour and reverence.
Deeply rooted in their cultural ethos, the festival encompasses various rituals, traditions and forms of artistic expression that embody the essence of the Santhal identity.
The festival is a cherished celebration among Santhal communities, rooted in agricultural traditions and spiritual beliefs. It symbolises unity and protection through rituals honouring village deities.
The Santhals have great respect and reverence for flowers – particularly those from the sal and mahua trees, as the two trees have significance in their culture and cuisine. Bahabanga is also known as the Flower Festival, as baha means flowers and banga means worship in the Santhali language.
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The community does not pick any flowers or leaves until the festival concludes. This custom is not only a tradition but is also linked to their respect for nature and its cycles. By refraining from picking flowers prematurely, the Santhals honour and respect the natural rhythm of growth and flowering.
As the Bahabanga festival marks the transition from winter to spring, it symbolises the beginning of a period of blossoming and renewal in the natural world. It serves as a joyous celebration of the arrival of spring, with its promise of new life and vitality.
It is a time when the Santhal community welcomes the transformation of the earth and the emergence of vibrant blooms, signifying the wealth and fertility that spring brings. Through the festival, they express gratitude to mother nature for the plenty she grants to them, signifying the interconnection between humans and the environment.
The Bahabanga festival, often referred to as the Flower Festival, is a cornerstone of Santhal culture, marking a time of spiritual renewal. It is considered the second most important celebration in Santhal culture after the Sohrai festival.
It typically takes place during March or April, determined by the village leader, known as the manjhi, with the consensus of the villagers. So the dates vary from village to village.
Central to the Bahabanga festival is the belief that the village deities protect the village from evil spirits and diseases such as pox, cholera and tuberculosis. The spiritual leader of the village, known as the nayke, plays a pivotal role during this time, leading prayers and rituals dedicated to village deities like Marang Buru and Jahira.
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Two days before the festival, the Santhals prepare a special place called the ‘Jahira than’ in a sal grove outside the village, where the nayke would lead the rituals during Bahabanga.
These rituals are performed to ensure the well-being and protection of all villagers, reflecting the deep spiritual connection of the Santhal people to their land and community.
One of the most distinctive aspects of the Bahabanga festival is the custom of singing traditional Santhal songs. These songs are not merely for entertainment but serve as a means of cultural expression, storytelling and connecting with their heritage.
During the Bahabanga festival, the Santhals come together to sing these traditional songs with great enthusiasm and pride. Passed down through generations, Santhali songs reflect themes of nature, community, spirituality and the Santhal way of life.
The lyrics and melodies of these songs celebrate their cultural identity and honour their ancestors. Through music, the Santhal community reaffirms its unity and resilience, carrying forward centuries-old traditions that define their cultural tapestry.
One of their songs goes:
In the Baha month, when the new moon appears
Nature looks beautiful – because
Trees in the forest grow new leaves and flowers
Like the sal and mahua trees
The Bahabanga festival thus becomes a living testament to the vitality of the Santhals, embodying their culture and beliefs.
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In addition to singing, dance is an integral part of the Bahabanga festival. Santhal dances are characterised by their rhythmic movements, gestures and footwork that carry deep cultural meanings and emotions.
These dances are not just performances but expressions of joy, gratitude and communal solidarity. During the Bahabanga festival, the Santhals’ dances often involve synchronised movements that symbolise the rhythms of nature and agricultural cycles.
The dancers, adorned in traditional attire, move in harmony with the beats of drums and other indigenous musical instruments. Each dance gesture tells a story, preserving narratives of the Santhals’ history, struggles, triumphs and aspirations.
The Bahabanga festival serves as a pivotal moment for the Santhal community to strengthen its bonds and reinforce its collective identity. It is a time when villagers from different generations come together to celebrate their shared heritage, customs and values.
The festival fosters a sense of belonging and unity among the Santhal people, transcending individual differences and emphasising communal harmony and the continuity of their traditions.
The elders pass down oral histories, cultural practices and wisdom, to younger generations, ensuring that their heritage endures. As the Bahabanga festival unfolds each year, it ensures that the cultural practices are passed down with pride.
Younger Santhali individuals actively participate in the festivities, learning the significance of their cultural heritage firsthand. They contribute to the vibrancy of the festival through their enthusiasm, creativity and dedication to upholding ancestral customs.
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The Bahabanga festival, therefore, plays a crucial role in cultural continuity, ensuring that Santhal traditions thrive and evolve in response to contemporary challenges while remaining rooted in their timeless essence.
As the Santhal community embraces the future, the Bahabanga festival remains a beacon of cultural identity and communal solidarity, uniting them in reverence for their past and hope for their future.
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The lead image shows the Santhali men and women wearing traditional clothes and dancing in rhythmic movements during the festival.
Mamali Sahoo, an independent journalist and a development professional, is associated with Vasundhara, a grassroots organisation in Odisha.
