'Ali-Aye-Ligang', the spring sowing festival of the Mising community, is associated with which state?

Ali-Aye-Ligang is the most important festival of the Mising (Mishing) tribe of Assam. It is an agricultural festival, celebrated every year on the first Wednesday of the month of Phagun (February-March), marking the beginning of the sowing of the ahu (autumn) paddy.

The name of the festival comes from the Mising language: "Ali" means seed or root, "Aye" means fruit, and "Ligang" means sowing. The festival therefore means "the sowing of seeds and fruits". On the day of the festival, the head of each family ceremonially sows a few seeds of paddy in a corner of the field, praying for a good harvest. The people avoid certain activities, such as ploughing, cutting trees and fishing, for a few days after the ceremony, as they believe that the earth and the seeds need rest.

The festival is celebrated with great joy by the whole community. Young men and women, dressed in their colourful traditional clothes, perform the Gumrag dance (Gumrag Soman), a lively group dance, to the music of drums and cymbals, moving from house to house in the village. The families welcome them with rice beer (apong) and food. Special dishes, such as "purang apin" (rice wrapped and cooked in leaves) and dried fish and meat, are prepared and shared. The festival strengthens the bonds of the community.

The Misings are the second-largest tribal community of Assam, after the Bodos. They live mainly along the banks of the Brahmaputra and its tributaries, in districts such as Dhemaji, Lakhimpur, Majuli, Jorhat and Sivasagar. They traditionally build their houses on bamboo stilts, called "chang ghar", to protect them from floods. They are related to the Adi people of Arunachal Pradesh.

Why not the other options?

• ✗Tripura celebrates Kharchi Puja and Garia Puja.
• ✗Meghalaya celebrates Wangala and Nongkrem.
• ✗Manipur celebrates Lai Haraoba and Yaoshang.