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December 1 is Nagaland statehood day and since 2000 the government’s planners and thinkers felt it would be a befitting occasion to showcase and promote Naga culture and promote inter-tribe harmony. Thus was born the Hornbill Festival earlier billed as ‘The Festival of Festivals’ and which today has carved a niche for itself as an important tourism itinerary nationally and internationally. From one day to two or three days and presently to ten days, the Hornbill Festival has indeed become the annual event that sets everyone, especially the tourism department , literally on fire due to the hectic schedules and daily events. Since over half a decade, the government’s remarkable think tanks have sought to ride the Hornbill success by terming Nagaland as the ‘Land of Festivals’. Nagaland has scores of festivals celebrated by its sixteen tribes. Most of these festivals revolve round agriculture. In an agricultural society, the occasion for feasting was logically at the end of a harvest. More importantly these occasions for rejoicing obtained a seasonal regularity. December 1 is also World AIDS Day, which also serves as reminder about the scourge, which like the coronavirus, continues to spread alarmingly. However, this year celebration of statehood day and observance of World AIDS Day was muted owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. Restrictions on public gathering as well as advise on public to not venture out unless necessary, appear to have dampened the celebrative spirit. The Hornbill Festival is a tourist attraction offering internationally acclaimed Naga cuisines including the choicest delicacies at the Heritage Village. The Heritage Village is a must-see place which has a lasting impact on visitors, especially from far away states including those from abroad. Who wouldn’t like to see, experience and enjoy the rare occasion of all-in-one festival? As the celebrations evolved from cultural events to entertainment, packaged with the traditional fervour, fashion show and some music and adventure sports thrown in between, it has indeed become the ‘happening festival’ and over the years, has become a culture in its own right. Today, the Hornbill Festival, which has been subjected to evolutionary changes is accepted as ‘the annual event’ and can even be equated as among the most exciting tourist promotional programmes in India. The overall picture that emerges through all these events, suggests that tourism is being sought to be promoted within the weeklong festival. This also raises the question – whether the state wants more tourists and if this is to be restricted only for ten days in December or should tourism be a serious matter that offers packages all year through as in other states? Nagaland offers some splendid spots for those who love nature in all its resplendent beauty. Areas that have not been given due importance are private and public participation in tourism. The clichés that have been emblazoned, such as- ‘Hornbill, the Festival of Festivals’ and Nagaland as the ‘Land of Festivals’; have been restricted to the bill boards. This is because connectivity to travel to the festivals is though bad roads sometimes unreachable during monsoon. Even requirement of facilities such as affordable transport, lodges and power etc have not been met .It is time for the government of Nagaland to leave festivities and tourist trade to private businesses and investors and focus on roads, electricity and water instead of trying to be the big event management corporation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Annual entertainment<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[685],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-209371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorial"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209371\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}