Hornbill Festival- Kisama Heritage Village - Reviews From Travellers

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Nithin Mathew

2015-12-01

Hornbill festival is called as the festival of all festivals and it is conducted every year from December 1 to 10. We had a wonderful two days here, seeing all the cultural events, tasting strange foods (rice wine, silk worms, dog meat- not your usual breakfast) and buying some of their crafts.

There are many tribes in the state of Nagaland, and this festival is conducted to encourage inter tribal interactions and to promote the heritage of Nagaland. The festival is named after the Indian Hornbill which is mentioned in the folklore of most of the state's tribes.

The week long festival is filled with colourful performances, crafts, sports, food fairs and ceremonies. Traditional art like paintings, aculptures, tattooing are also displayed. The highlights of the festival include sale of arts and crafts, food stalls, herbal medicine stalls, flower shows and sales, cultural medley - songs and dances, fashion shows, the Miss Nagaland beauty contest, traditional archery, Naga wrestling, indigenous games, and musical concert.

Being a popular event known all over India, Kohima city is going to be filled with people coming for the festival. There are some problems with the transportation as public transportation was not so penetrated in Nagaland (at least till 2015) and also due to the cold (it is very cold in December there). If you are coming from outside of Nagaland, be prepared to take a lot of taxis/ shared taxis.