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No Bihu bonfire in this village

Morongial (Assam): If the traditional bonfire or ‘mazi’ symbolises Bhogali Bihu for the Assamese, to the people of a forlorn village in Jorhat, it means only agony and this year too they will not light the fire.

The traditional ‘pithas’ and ‘ladus’ are made in every household of Morongial village in Nakachari area, about 31 km from Jorhat town.

All other fun-fare and rituals associated with the Bhogali Bihu (also called Magh Bihu), the feasting festival of the State, are also closely observed. But perhaps the most exciting and engaging ritual of building the ‘mazis’ (logs and hay stacked together in open fields) and lighting them at the crack of dawn on Bihu is missed by villagers. The present generation, and even their couple of predecessors, have never known the joy of the ‘mazi’.

Building and lighting of this ritualistic bonfire was stopped in this village more than two centuries ago. According to village elder Mahim Gogoi Medhi, a young man of the village was burnt alive in the bonfire when he fell into the burning stack some 200 years back. Medhi, now 99-year-old, informed that they have stopped lighting the ‘mazi’ since the accident. But when they tried to revive the tradition, it met with ill luck.

“In 1921-22, along with two of my friends, I tried to revive the tradition. But within a few days after Bhogali Bihu, a bout of small pox visited the village and 19 people died,” he said.

Since then, no one had dared to build or light the ‘mazi’ in this village, the grand old man of the village said. PTI

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No Bihu bonfire in this village

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