Imphal, January 13 2010: As Part of the cleaning of places of worship, the Ethno Heritage Council (HERICON) has been organizing a series of discussions at different areas on Umang Lais (local deities of an area).

Spending around three days in each place of worship, the origin, the mode of offerings, the permissible days of prayer, rituals of merry making of the gods (Lai Haraoba) and do and don'ts were thoroughly discussed with experts, said a press note issued by (HERICON) .

The Lai Harouba which is an inalienable part of the Manipuri society gives a glimpse of the origin, advent of settlement and family etc.

Lai Harouba of a locality is performed without fail every year incurring huge expenditure and labour.

Lai Taking Harouba is a fashion or mere entertainment is wrong and would amount to challenging the struggle of the community, continued the release.

Even though most places of worships have been made to strictly follow the correct rituals in performing Lai Haraoba, in some places it is still a platform for rowdism, for flirtation, chitrahar and chitramala and for money making, said the release, and called on the general public to guard against such practices which will bring about the downfall of the society.

It is with the firm idea of performing the Lai Haroba following the correct rituals that HERICON has been conducting service in many places of worship and will continue to do so.

It appealed to Lai committees, local club and meira paibis to contact HERICON if they desire this service to be conducted at their place of worship.

Finally HERICON urged everybody to shoulder the responsibility of performing Lai Haraoba following the correct ritual which in turn will help in protecting the identity and religious practice of the community.

Comment