Shad Suk Mynsiem (April)

This Khasi festival is also known as the Dance of the Joyful Heart. The festival is performed to celebrate harvesting and sowing in relation to the agricultural cycle (i.e. the harvesting period and the beginning of the sowing period). It symbolizes the fertility cult: it represents women as the bearer of seeds and men as cultivators, who cultivates and nourishes the yield, as well as protects the nurse. It also paying obeisance to God, the creator for the blessings that he has showered.Men and women dress in their traditional costumes of gold and silver ornaments dance to the beats of the Nakra (drum) and the tunes of the Tangmuri (flute). The girls always hold a white handkerchief in their hands, this symbolizes that the girls are unmarried and are virgins.The beautiful maidens dance at the centre while the men circle the women and dance around them. This beautiful dance sequence represents the men being protective of their women and their kingdom. The dance also depicts the matrilineal society, where the male is the maternal uncle and father of a family where as the woman is the custodian of the ancestral property.