Essay on “Kedu Festival”
In Orissa. Kedu is the favourite festival of the Khonds of the Phulbani region. Besides here, it is also observed in the districts of Ganjam and Koraput. The festival is organised in different villages in different years. The date and place of next year’s festival is decided a year before.
The chief festival among the Kondh is the Kedu festival renowned for its ritual of human sacrifice. But the ritual was banned during British rule. No, to keep the religious sentiment intact, protected buffalo sacrifice has been allowed.
The festival continues for five days and there are different rituals for each day. The sacrifices are made on the third and fourth day in a most crucial manner.
Men and women get a drunk dance in a frantic mood and then kill the animal in a most brutal manner. Animals are cut piece by piece. Then they are the blood and meat to a field where turmeric is applied to bury it. It is performed to propitiate the Mother Earth.
