Lai Haraoba Festival begins in Tripura

On January 2, 2020, the Lai Haraoba festival began in Tripura. The festival will be celebrated for 5 days. The festival is celebrated by the Meitei community. The community is spread across Assam, Tripura, Manipur, Meghalaya, Myanmar and Bangladesh. However, the festival is widely celebrated in the state of Manipur.

Lai Haraoba Festival

Lai Haraoba festival is celebrated by Meitei people to please sacred trees called “Umang Lai”. They speak the language called “Meiteilon”.  The Lai Haraoba Festival in the state of Manipur is celebrated in the month of May.

Umang Lai

Umang Lai are the sacred trees that are preserved for the local forest deities. The trees have significant place in Sanamahism. The followers of the religion mainly worship elements of nature such as mountains, water and fire. According to 2011 census, around 8% of Manipur population are following Sanamahism.

Eighth Schedule of Constitution

There are 22 languages in the Eighth Schedule of Constitution. Article 346 says that Hindi in Devanagari script is the official language. However, English is also allowed to be used as official language.

The Language Meiteilon (also called Manipuri) is included in the Eighth Schedule of Constitution of India.