- By Mitalee Sharma, (Photographs by Ashraf Hussain)
As in the previous years, the Assamese community of the greater Washington D.C. metro area has celebrated Magh Bihu in Odenton, Maryland. The celebration took place on Saturday, January 14, 2012 simultaneous with the celebration taking place that day in Assam.
As a member of the Indian-American community, I have always felt that festival of Magh Bihu shared some distinct similarities with the American holiday of Thanksgiving. Both have their roots as harvest festivals, they both have a dominant food theme, and most importantly, they both focus heavily on the importance of reflecting on the importance of time spent with friends and family throughout the past year. But sadly, the last Thanksgiving was a little hard for the community, as mother Assam lost two of her most beloved children within the same month; Dr. Bhupen Hazarika and Dr. Indira (Mamoni Raisom) Goswami.
Magh Bihu is unique as part of the traditional celebration of Makar Sankranti, the winter solstice with Magh Bihu serving a festival of thanksgiving to the God of Fire for protecting us in the past year from fire, and to appeal for his continuing protection in the year to come.
The food bar was filled to over-flowing with all types of well-loved authentic food that have been well-loved favorites of prior festivals. Some of the favorites there were: Ghila pitha, khaar, goat meat, duck meat curry, fish curry, aloo pitika, boror tenga,- maati maahor daail, yogurt and etc., all from a typical Assamese kitchen.
No Magh Bihu celebration is complete with a number of games to play! After everyone was well fed, there were several games to entertain everyone such as “musical chairs” and “Tekeli Bhanga” which were a hit with young and old alike. Other games followed and an enjoyable time was had by all.
Following the games, there were musical performances by several well-known mucisicans in the community. Among them were Mr. Rabin Goswami, who sang evergreen songs of Dr. Bhupen Hazarika, Mr.Satyen Das, who sang “Parbaboti Prasador geet”, along with Mr. Anurag Borua, Ms. Nipika Bora, Ms.Arundhati Goswami and Ms. Anjana Bordoloi, who invoked nostalgia with their songs of Assam in their melodious voices.
The event was once again a complete success, thoroughly enjoyed not only by the adults present that grew up in Assam, but also for the younger attendants who were being introduced to the festival and its traditional celebrations.
