TURA: Fireworks lit up the night sky in Tura as the town bid final adieu to the year that was and welcomed the coming of the New Year at zero hour on December 31.
People gathered around warm home fires and at locality pandals built for the festivities and eagerly waited for midnight to come to greet family members, friends and relatives with New Year wishes while others attended midnight services conducted by various churches in and around the town. Barring the Tura Baptist Church, the oldest Church in the town which discontinued the service some years ago, other Churches from different denominations continue to hold the service to coincide with the arrival of the New Year as it concluded at midnight.
While the younger generation took to the streets and stayed out the whole night in revelry, the older generation preferred to sit around Waltims (shed built for sitting around a fire) and exchange tales of how Christmas and New Year used to be celebrated during their younger days.
On January 1, New Year’s feast was held at various Churches and community pandals where various Garo traditional delicacies were cooked for the people to share together as a mark of unity. Garo traditional dishes like Gominda Wak (Pork with pumpkin), Mebram Pura Wak (Pork with innards of a banana stem), Tangsek Pura Wak (Pork with leafy green vegetables), Do’o Alu (Chicken with Potatoes cooked in oil), Brenga (Meat cooked inside a bamboo stem), Kappa (Meat cooked with sodium Bicarbonate) and others were prepared at the various community feast all over the town.
Following the New Year feast, Songkritan dances (Garo traditional song and dance during Christmas) were also conducted at some community pandals while others preferred the modern way of playing Christmas and New Year numbers late into the night.
However, there were also some incidents to dampen the peaceful celebration of the festivities. A Bolero vehicle was torched by unknown miscreants sometime between Christmas and New Year near DC’s Park opposite to the Tura Main Post Office.
Another incident that marred the festivities was the arrest of one person for killing and consuming a rhesus macaque monkey. Tura Police arrested one, Sengkud Sangma on December 31 for committing the crime. Sangma had reportedly posted photos of the preparation of the monkey meat for consumption which led to his arrest.
