Ambubachi at Kamakhya
The festivals of the rains, the Goddess's season, when devotion draws some of the region's largest gatherings.
The festivals of spring
The year opens in spring, at the turn of the farming calendar, with the festivals of sowing and the new year.
Bohag Bihu (Rongali Bihu)
The spring festival of Assam. Seven days of dance, songs, new clothes, and the gamosa. Marks the Assamese new year and the start of the sowing season.
Baisagu
The Bodo spring festival. Bagurumba dance, the Kham drum, the start of the agricultural year for Bodo households.
Ali-aye-ligang
The Mising sowing festival. The first sowing of the year, ritually performed by the village priest.
Lamps, and thanksgiving
The festivals of autumn fall in the lean season, before the new crop comes home.
Kati Bihu (Kongali Bihu)
The austere mid-year Bihu. Granaries empty, the new crop not yet in. Earthen lamps in the paddy fields, prayers for the standing crop.
Wangala
The Garo harvest festival, the festival of the hundred drums.
The harvest, and the ancestors
The festivals of winter, the season of plenty and of remembrance. Harvest feasting sits beside rites for the dead.
Magh Bihu (Bhogali Bihu)
The harvest festival. Bonfires, feasts, traditional games. The Bihu of the granary.
Chomangkan
The Karbi death-rite festival. Held collectively for all family members who have died since the last Chomangkan.
Festivals of devotion and remembrance
The festivals of devotion and of remembrance, which keep their own calendars.
Majuli Raas Mahotsav
The river island's great festival: the life of Krishna staged across the satras over days of masked dance-drama, drawing tens of thousands to Majuli.
Me-Dam-Me-Phi
The Ahom festival of ancestor worship, observed across Assam on 31 January. Offerings to the departed (dam) and to the gods (phi), and a remembrance of the dynasty's dead.
Barpeta Doul Utsav
Assam's most famous Holi: the spring festival of colour at Barpeta Satra, where devotion to Krishna is woven through the play of colour over several days.
The fair, and the festivals of today
The old trade fairs and the modern state festivals that fold heritage and tourism together.
Jonbeel Mela
The only fair in India where the barter system still runs. Hill and plains communities meet on the banks of the Jonbeel lake to exchange goods without money.
Dehing Patkai Festival
Upper Assam's heritage festival near the Dehing Patkai rainforest: tribal fairs, tea-estate heritage, adventure sport and the cultures of the far east of the state.
Kaziranga Elephant Festival
A February festival at Kaziranga built around the Asiatic elephant: parades, cultural programmes and a conservation message, timed to the prime safari season.