Hectic and nonstop preparations and final touches to all the facilities and logistics required for the smooth and successful hosting of the Wangala festival are on.
The three-day annual post harvest festival which is set to begin on November 11 at Wangala A.dam in Chibragre, near Tura is the biggest festival of the Garos and a post harvest thanksgiving ceremony to ‘Misi Saljong’ also known as ‘Patigipa Rarongipa’, the deity who gives in plenty.
The festival is a symbolic of the true and original Wangala dance and associated rituals which is now practised only by the handful of Garos called ‘Songsareks’ who still follows tribal or animistic form of belief systems. Participated by the ten contingents of Wangala troupes, which counts to 100 Drums in total, drawn from all the four corners of Garo Hills the festival has attracted visitors both from the national and international boundaries raising the tourists’ footfalls phenomenally.
Organising committee chairman, Ronald Rikman Sangma saida wholesome power packed entertainment programmes have been drawn up for three days cultural extravaganza and the committee intends to make the festival more grandeur this year in view of the easing of Covid pandemic.
Sangma said all the necessary SOPs as prescribed by the government will be put in place in all the strategic and at vulnerable spots which would strictly enforced by the set of dedicated volunteers and marshals.
Speaker of Meghalaya Legislative Assembly, Metbah Lyngdoh, Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma, Rajya Sabha MP, Dr. W.R. Kharlukhi, ministers and host of senior bureaucrats will grace the occasion on different dates of the festival.
