Background
The origin of the festival is that the gods held the first Lai Haraoba on the Koubru hill, so that their descendants should imitate them and perform the same as it had been done by the deities so that they will never forget the secret and sacred story of the creation of this universe and the birth of the different lives on this earth.
In Manipur and with some Meitei people, Manipur is a land of deities with Atiya Shidaba as the supreme god. Atiya Shidaba, Apanba, and Asheeba are the three manifestations or incarnations of God as the creator, the preserver and the annihilator of this universe. Pakhangba, Sannamahi and Nongpok Ningthou are the incarnations who play the role of the male deities of the Meiteis, whereas Leimarel Shidabi and Panthoibi, the role of female deities. Besides these, 364 deities with their consorts are the most important deities worshiped by the Meiteis.
Sannamahi and Leimarel are worshiped in every house of the Meiteis. The other gods and the three hundred and sixty four deities are worshipped in the "Umang lai Laisangs" (temple of gods in the reserved woods with spacious grounds) in the villages. The Umang Lai Haraoba (merry festival of the jungle Gods) is the most important ceremony in which the deities are worshiped by all inhabitants of the village as a symbol of the part and parcel of the creation work. Meiteis take every male and female as god and goddess who play the role and deities in the Haraoba.
The rituals within the festival are the same except in some items or hymns, such as ikouba, ikourol, and yakairol at the beginning and mikon thagonba, ngaprum tanba at the end of the festival. In the performances, the evolution story with the amorous love-affairs of Nongpok Ninghthou and Panthoibi is depicted and played equally in all kinds of lai haraoba.
Read more about this topic: Lai Haraoba
Famous quotes containing the word background:
“They were more than hostile. In the first place, I was a south Georgian and I was looked upon as a fiscal conservative, and the Atlanta newspapers quite erroneously, because they didn’t know anything about me or my background here in Plains, decided that I was also a racial conservative.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)
“Silence is the universal refuge, the sequel to all dull discourses and all foolish acts, a balm to our every chagrin, as welcome after satiety as after disappointment; that background which the painter may not daub, be he master or bungler, and which, however awkward a figure we may have made in the foreground, remains ever our inviolable asylum, where no indignity can assail, no personality can disturb us.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I had many problems in my conduct of the office being contrasted with President Kennedy’s conduct in the office, with my manner of dealing with things and his manner, with my accent and his accent, with my background and his background. He was a great public hero, and anything I did that someone didn’t approve of, they would always feel that President Kennedy wouldn’t have done that.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)