Chapchar Kut literally means - a festival held during the period when the bamboos and trees that have been cut down are being awaited to dry to be burnt for jhumming. During this brief layoff period of jhumming, the Mizo ancestors could have all the time for themselves. They spend their leisure hunting games, fishing, et al. The Chapchar Kut festival evolved sometime between 1450 -1600 A.D. when the Mizo forefathers inhabit Lentlang. In the olden days, the festival could last for days and in the run up to the grand finale, there are well laid down steps to be followed.
Everyone in the village have a role to play; of course, the youths were most involved in every stage of the preparation and in the festival itself. Designed to be a festival of joy, all disputes and differences that may be there in the community should be settled, even altercation between married couples was a taboo during the celebration of the festival. Abundant supply of meat must be there and home brewed liqour must be over-flowing to keep their spirit high. They danced away all all their cares and made merry all night long. That sums up how the Mizos celebrate Chapchar Kut in the olden days when they were heathens.
The modern version of Chapchar Kut have done away with liqour, which was once a part and parcel of the festival. Even so, the present generation is not in any way lacking in keeping the spirit of the festival fever pitch high. In fact, Mizoram has been a dry state for years; the Young Mizo Association (YMA), the largest NGO in the state, is combating drug and alcohol on a war footing starting this year and they are also very much a major player in organising Chapchar Kut. But who says one needs a bottle of rum to be merry ! The younger generation of the Mizos have invented for themselves enthralling music..music...and more music to drowned themselves in. This was evident, as it always is wherever a dozen or so Mizo youths congregate, in the Chapchar Kut festival. The crowd went berserk when the choicest of the Mizo pop divas performed Mizo songs. Believe me, right from toddlers to policemen, who were supposed to keep watch, were practically dancing.
Script Source: http://mizoram.nic.in
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