Young Mizos performing Cheraw / bamboo folk dance at the annual Anthurium Festival of Mizoram, India.
Cheraw is a very old traditional dance of the Mizos. It is believed that the dance had already existed way back in the 1st Century A.D., while the Mizos were still somewhere in the Yunan Province of China, before their migration into the Chin Hills in the 13th Century A.D., and eventually to the present Mizoram. Some of the tribes living in South East Asia have similar dances in one form or the other with different names.
The Anthurium Festival is a 3 day-long event organized every year in September by the state govt. of Mizoram with the aim to promote tourism in the state and also encourage Anthurium cultivation in Mizoram. It is a very popular festival and has slowly become one of the most prominent tourism festivals of the North East region.
The Anthurium Festival is celebrated every year at the tourist resort in Reiek Village at the foothills of the mystic Reiek Mountain. Set in an idyllic and mystic location about 20kms away from Aizawl, the capital city of Mizoram, the serene and tranquil beauty of Reiek Village adds an amazing charm to the beautiful Anthurium Festival. Beautiful Anthurium flowers grown in Mizoram are put on display and sold during the Anthurium Festival and tours to amazing Anthurium plantations are also conducted during the 3 day festival. What started as a way of promoting tourism and the amazing homegrown Anthurium flowers in Mizoram has slowly become one of the most anticipated festivals for tourists both from within as well as outside the country.
In addition, Anthurium Festival is an event where all the various Mizo tribes get to come together and showcase their amazing cultures and traditions. The 3 day-long celebrations are marked by a colorful display of various Mizo cultures and traditions; indigenous games and sports, mouth-watering traditional Mizo delicacies, folk songs and dances, traditional methods of harvesting and cooki