love songs that immoralise tragic love stories, gospel songs and folk tunes. Festivals are celebrated by the various tribes year around; during festivals villages become most lively. Most of the dances have a robust rhythm.

Festivals mainly revolve around agriculture, it being the mainstay of the economy. Over 85 per cent of the population of Nagaland is directly dependent on agriculture and lives in the 1,000-odd villages situated on hilltops or slopes overlooking verdant valleys. In this blissful setting, Nagas enjoy nature with a rare gusto that visitors to the State look at with awe and admiration. In most of these places agriculture consists of a single crop. Although some religious and spiritual sentiments are inter-woven into secular rites and rituals, the predominant theme of the festivals is the offering of prayers to a supreme being, which has different names in different Naga dialects. At these festivals, the gods are propitiated with sacrifices by the head of the village, for a bountiful harvest, either before sowing or on the eve of the harvest. In fact, agricultural work and religion are so interwoven in Naga society that it is difficult to describe the festivals independent of the processes of agriculture.

For encouraging inter-tribal cultural interaction and bringing together the festivals of the various tribes under one umbrella, the Government of Nagaland has evolved a festival called the Hornbill festival, where one can see a melange of Naga cultural displays at one place. Organised by the State Directorate of Tourism every year between December 1 and 5 in Kohima since 2000, the festival is intended to revive, protect and preserve the richness and uniqueness of the Naga heritage and attract tourists. The festival, in a way, is also a tribute to the hornbill, a bird most admired by the Naga people for its qualities of alertness and grandeur. This majestic bird is linked closely with the social and cultural life of the people, as is evident in tribal folklores, dances and songs. The awe and admiration for the bird is symbolically displayed on almost all traditional tribal headgears worn during festivities."

Source: http://www.hornbillfestival.com

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