I. Festivals and Religious Rites
'Rites' refers to a set of prescribed form of religious activities having reference to beliefs in invisible sprits and their powers. Rites usually consist of `Dare' (Sacrifcial offerings), Codor (libations) and bakher (invocations). Festival on the other hand refers to a community celebrations which is a combination of socio-religious and the secular activities. The religious aspects Comprise of performing various prescribed rites for a particular festival (seasonal or otherwise); This is followed by a Community celebration where all the members-boys and girls young and old dance and sing, eat and drink thus participating in the merry making.
The Santals are a joyous community; 'raska' meaning pleasure or joy is their motto in life; they are happy and contented even in the worst situations of ulter poverty. Thus there are numerous seasonal rites and festivals celebrated by the Santals. Their behaviour during these festivals are characterised by a carefree, unhibited attitude and a joyous frame of mind. Men and women, adults and children all gather together for the occassion to indulge and to meet their friends and relatives. Dancing and singing hold very important roles in almost all these festive occassions.

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II. Major Seasonal festivals of the Santals
The following table shows the annual cycle of the Santal festivals and their relationship with various agricultural activities.
Festival Month Agricultural Operation
Baha Phagun (February-March) Offering of the 'first fruits' of matkom and other wild fruits and flowers.

Erok' Sim Asar (June - July) Sowing of rice seeds.

Hariar Sim San (July - August) Sprouting of the rice seeds.

Iri-Gundli Nawai Bhador (August-September) Offering of the first fruits of the millet crops

Janthar Aghar (November-December) Offering of the first fruits of the winter rice crop.

Sohrae Pus (December-January) After the paddy has been harvested.

Magh Sim Magh (January-February) Cutting of the thatching grass.

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----------------------------------------------------------------------------SOHRAE (harvesting festival)
Sohrae is the principal and the most important public event of the Santals; it is also the largest of the festivals. Sohrae is usually celebrated in the month of Pous (December-January) when the paddy has been reaped, thrashed and stored.

It is a post harvest festival, celebrated for five to six days in winterDuring the Sohrae the village spirits and the ancestor spirits are worshipped and thanked; the rituals include sacrificing. The six daysof festivities have each day earmarked for special activities. The important and the usual components of Sohrae festival include blessing and baiting of cattle (gai-dangra sunum ojok'ar charhao) fishing expedition (hako-katkom) and a village hunt (sendra). Sohrae is the biggest annual event for the Santals to relax and enjoy. During this period the married daughters return to their houses and relatives from other villages also come with gifts. It is the biggest community celebration during which the whole community eats and drinks , dance and sing and make merry.
This is the occasion for the great communion whereby the whole villagers with their relatives along with the ancestors and the spirits come together to join in the merriest of festivities.

Baha - (the flowering festival)
Baha porob - the festival of flowers is the second largest festival of the Santals being celebrated in the month of phagun (February-March) after the full moon has been sighted.This is also the period when the sarjom(sal) and the matkom (mahua) trees blossom. Before Baha festival, no one is allowed to gather the matkom baha which provide the Santals with food and drink. The celebration usually lasts for two days. Baha is a "righteous festival and not licentious like the sohrae" remarks Kolean (Bodding 1942:151).
Baha is considered to be the beginning of the Santal year; the rituals comprise of massive propitiation of the national spirits who are invoked to keep the villages free from various illness and witchcraft and preserve the crops.
The Baha porob is celebrated in different days in different villages; thus the villagers have adequate opportunities to visit their relatives and join in the feast of eating, drinking and dancing.
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Erok' Sim (sowing festival)
Erok' sim is yet another of the agricultural festivals. It is celebrated in the month of Asar (June-July) just before the winter paddy is sown. The village council decides upon the day of the celebration. On the forenoon of day of the festival, the godet visits each household in the village collecting fowls (sim) and other materials for the sacrificial offering. Then in the afternoon the naeke after the usual purificatory bath goes to the jaherthan being accompanied by the Kudam naeke, the godet and some villagers. The naeke sacrifices the fowls one each to propitiate the Maran Buru, moreko-turuiko, Jaher Era and Gosae Era. Another fowl is sacrificed in honour of Manjhi Haram. The Kudam naeke then offers two black fowls - one each in honour of Sima bongas and Bahre bongas. The spirits through these sacrifices are implored to keep the village free from diseases and to bring rain and festivity to the land, thus enabling them to have a bumper crop. The spirits are also implored to keep the cattle healthy and enable them to increase in number.

After the sacrificial offering, the fowls are cooked with rice and all the people present eat of the sura-jel; however it is noteworthy, the fowls sacrificed to Jaher Era and Moreko-Turuiko are cooked separately and eaten only by the naeke. After this ceremony, the villagers sing and dance in the kulhi. The following day each household in the village sacrifice fowls in honour of Maran Buru, abge bongas and orak' bongas. After the completion of this festival the sowing of the winter paddy begins.
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Hariar Sim
The festival is celebrated in the month of San (July-August) when the paddy seeds begin to germinate pushing out new shoorts. The rituals associated include sacrificial offering to the bongas imploring them to have a green (hariar) and luxuriant growth of the paddy. The village naeke after an overnight fasting, takes the usual purficatory bath in the morning. Then he takes two fowls and a hatak' (winnowing fan) containing flour, adwa caole,sindur and some paddy seedlings to the Jaher than. He makes sacrificial offerings to the village bongas i.e. to Maran Buru, Moreko-turuiko, Jaher Era, Gosae-Era, Pargana Bonga, Manjhi Haram Bonga as also to the Sima Bongas. Then he returns to his house and offers rice beer to the villagers visiting his house. It is only after this festival that the paddy transplantation begins.

Janthar (festival of the first fruits)
The Santals like other tribals regard the first fruits of the harvest as sacred and have rituals associated with 'offering' the first fruit of the harvest to the 'bongas'. It is only after this ceremonial offerings have been made to the spirits that the Santals eat of the first fruits. Traditionally Santals have three festivals connected with Janthar at slightly different period; a) the month of Bhador (August - September) offering the first millet (iri-gundli nawai) of the harvest to the bongas b) Janthar or Baihar horo-nawai in the month of Aghar (Nov - Dec) offering the first low-land paddy to the bongas and c) Magh sim this is celebrated in the month of Magh (January - February) just before the thatching stases (sauri) ripens. During this the bongas are involved to multiply the sauri crops.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------Jom sim, Mak'-more and Karam
The santals celebrate a few festivals that are not related with the agricultural cycle nor are celebrated annually, A few important festivals under this category are - Jom sim, Mak'-more and Karam.
Jom sim
Jom sim festival is a clan celebration wherein the sacrificial offering is made in honour of the Sun God. Traditionally every household should attempt to celebrate it once in life time at any definite fixed time.

Mak'-More
This festival is traditionally observed by the Santals at an interval of more (five) years; during the festival a white goat is sacrificed by the village naeke to `Moreko-turuiko' as a token of thanks giving on behalf of the villagers for having kept the village free from diseases.
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Karam
Karam festival in not an annual festival nor it is performed by the villagers as a whole. This festival usually organised in the month Asin (September - October) is sponsored by a household. The exceptional feature of this festival is that no sacrifices are offered but only rice-beer libations are poured out to Manjhi-Haram Bonga and Maran-Buru. Karam celebration usually starts in the evening after darkness fall in the village; two unmarried men after bathing go to the nearby forest to bring two branches of karam tree (adina cordifolia); the village folk accompany them to the forest and back dancing and singing durumjak'; the two men then plant the karam dar on the kulhi outside side the house where karam is to be celebrated and the villagers continue dancing and singing around the branches. The household elder then comes out, sprinkles water , put a cloth over the branches and a small light is lit infront .

He then puts sindur over the branches and offers rice-beer libations infront of the branches invoking Maran-Buru and Manjhi Haram Bonga each time. These spirits are implored to give property and wealth to the household. The villagers one also offered rice-beer drinks. The village elders then start reciting `karam binti' - the history of creation of the universe and mankind (Santals), the division into clans and subclans. This is followed with dancing and singing till the sunrise; then the branches are taken out and immersed in the village pond. Another important event that takes place during the festival is the formalisation of life-long friendship between two unmarried youths of the same sex; this is accomplised by putting the karam buds in the each others hair. The friendship thus accomplished between the boys is called Karmu Dharmu and Karamdar among the girls. Hence forth, the youths enter into a new relationship the boys having the status of brothers, while the girls become sisters.

Hindu festivals (Chata, Pata, Jatra.)
Besides the major festivals mentioned early, the Santals also have festivals that are of Hindu origin. These festivals are not community event but are sponsored by individual household; the villagers gather just to see; they do not worship. Among these type of festivals are Chata, Pata, Jatra.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------III. Disom - Sendra (Annual Hunt) ^TOP^ BOTTOM
Though the Annual Hunt strictly speaking is not a festival, yet it has all the characteristics of a communal festive occasion with various manifestations of an intimate relationship of the Santals with their bongas. Disom Sendra comprise of a three day hunting expedition wherein the disom (a number of villages) participate whereas por sendra is just a one day informal village level hunting. Like any other santal festival which are occasions to come together, the disom sendra too bring together the santals, other tribals and even non-tribals of a number of villages; however number of the other communities, are relatively fewer Disom-Sendra has the following three district entities :-

a) Sendra (The Hunt)
The Annual hunt is organised in the month of phagun (February-March) after the Baha festival. The religious and secular leader of the Annual Hunt is called the dihri (the hunt priest) in the same way as they have naeke (village priest) and kudam naeke (asst. priest) in the village; the dihri wields considerable respect and authority during the annual hunt and is incharge of a section of hills and forest under his jurisdiction. The dihri in consultation with others decides the details of the annual hunt - the day of commencement, the meeting places and the places where the nights are to be spent. He then spreads these news through a Dharwak' - a small sarjom branch with leaves on it carried by a man. The ritual has elaborate preparation. Once the dharwak' has been made the villages start preparing for the big event; all the menfolk expected to participate start preparing and sharpening their bows and arrows and other weapons. Then on the eve of the disom sendra the village naeke of every village sacrifices five fowls for the success and safety of the hunters; the fowls are given by the naeke himself and in return of this he is entitled a strip of flesh cut from the back bone of every big catch by his co-villagers after the hunt. The dihri also prepares himself by refraining from sexual inter-course and sleeps on the ground few day prior to the event; on the eve of the day he fasts and puts two sapings in a brass-water-vessel. The freshness of the twigs the following morning is indicative of a good omen predicting success. The dihri then takes a purificatory bath early in the morning before the hunters start assembling. The next stage of activity is the invocation of the sprits : After everyone has gathered at dupurup' jaega - the place decided upon for the meeting, the dihri prepares the `Khond' (altar); three arrows are placed around the khond; the arrows are further encircled by a white thread . The dihri makes a few small circles on the khond with flour and puts small heaps of adwa caole and molasses within each of these circles; five sindur marks are put infront of each of these heaps of adwa caole. The whole khond is then sprinkled with milk. The dihri then holds a fowl, sprinkles it with water and applies sindur to its forehead, wings and legs and allows it to eat of the adwa caole. The hunt priest then invokes the spirits imploring them for the safety, success and well being of the hunters. The fowl is then sacrifised by beheading it with the axe; similarly all the five fowls are sacrifised - the first one in the honour of the Rongo - Ruji Bonga - the fantoms of the forest, one in the name of dihri's own bongas of the forests. The dihri then performs the Bul-mayam ceremony whereby he allows his own blood to run down over some adwa caole which are then offered to the spirits. The fowls thus scarified are then cooked with rice and the dihri then breaks his fast. Once this ceremony is over, the tamak is played by an assistant of the dihri announcing the beginning of the hunt.

b) Torea
Torea is the name given to a special entertainment organised by the hunters during the nights of disom sendra. During these nights, the hunters not attending the Lo Bir Baisi attend the Torea; the torea consists of two flute players often dressed up in women's garments with flowers on their hair and a nude joker (langta kora); the flute players sing songs and tell various stories about sex with humor and obscenity while the langta kora exhibits his nakedness after miming the singers.
Torea is believed to be organised and enacted for two reasons - the first being the appeasement of the Rongo - Ruji bonga who is believed to be the patroness of these nude jokers; the second and probably the more important reason behind this is that it provides an opportunity for sex - education to the young adults during the disom sendra. The "torea" continues till dawn when the hunters have their morning meals and continue their hunting.
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c) Lo Bir Baisi (Santal Supreme Council)
The Lo Bir Baisi (LBB) is the Santals highest court of appeal. The LBB sits during the nights of the disom sendra and various conflicts and disputes arising asuring the annual hunt; but what is much more noteworthy is the fact that this (LBB) serves as the highest appellate court of the Santals; hence various social disputes brought to its notice are also decided upon. Any dispute relating to the hunting that remain unsolved are decided upon by the dihri and the concerned villagers after the hunt through "phuta - phuti" deliberations.
It may be emphasized here, the Santals on the basis of their oral history and tradition believe that it was in one such historical Lo Bir Baisi that they framed various laws, rules and regulations for their self governance. It is widely believed that their ancestors sat down for five day and nights continuously drafting and working out the details of the santal laws and justice. Thus after the end of these five days of strenuous deliberations they adopted and gave upon themselves these laws which till today exist in varying degree in every Santal village being known as Manjhi - pargana system. The importance of this historical event is reflected in various songs of the Santals;