After Navanna; the festival of new rice, Ganga Puja is celebrated in March/April every year. This is another remarkable tribal festival. Ganga, it may be recalled, is one of the fourteen deities of the land. Like Garia Puja, this too is a community festival. People gather by the streamside, pare three piece of bamboo into beautiful flowers, the villagers then build a temple with bamboos in the middle of the stream, and the ageless rituals take place amidst joy and splendour. God is propitiated by the sacrifice of goats, buffaloes and ganders to save the people from any epidemic. |