Message in Bhilali on Novai festival to welcome the new crop
Bhurai Dube from village Dhulkot of district Khargone is telling us about the Novai festival which is celebrated in september-october to acknowledge the bounty of nature in giving a good crop to the people and to ask permission from the deities to partake of the new crops. He relates how the new bajra is pounded and then prepared in the form of ghat and then served to the people to eat along with the new daal. The priest or pujara worships the deities and also the new crop and then the feasting starts. Goats and chicken are also sacrificed and cooked and eaten. Liquor is prepared from mahua flowers and this too is distributed for drinking. This is the traditional custom of the Bhilala adivasis that they have been following from the time of their forefathers.