Jharkhand
The Land Of Forests
Hill Station in Jharkhand
Official seal of Jharkhand
Location of Jharkhand in India
Culture
Festivals
In whole Chotanagpur Plateau Region, among the local people the Karam Festival is celebrated with great pomp and show.
Among the Oraon Tribe, the Karam festival is one of the most important festivals and holds a very important place in their social and religious life. It is usually celebrated 15 days after the Kunwaar-Shukl-Paksh. After the fixation of the date for the festival, the local population start their preparation. Besides, for the Karam-Puja, they buy oil, Sindoor, Daliya. Being a very important community festival of the region, it is celebrated by the entire Oraon and other local communities of the region; now in its modern day re-embodiment, the festivity has spread far and wide, from the rural to the urban ambience, and from Chotanagpur to other parts of country.
On the occasion of the festival, the Boys and the Girls are given extraordinary treatment and due importance by their respective families. The families, their mother and father, give them special “Karam-clothes” to their children, these clothes signify the unmarried status of the Boys and the Girls of the family.
One of the most interesting aspects of these special clothes given as gift is that these Karam-clothes are hand-woven by the mother and father for their child, after hours of hard-work. It signifies, the clothes save them from the bad influence and the habits. The Karam and these Karam-Clothes are considered very auspicious.
Sherin Sara Jose
IX B