Kut Festival 2026

About Kut Festival

Kut, also called Chavang Kut, is the autumn thanksgiving festival of the Kuki-Chin-Mizo peoples, held once the jhum rice harvest is in. In 2026 it falls on Sunday, 1 November 2026. The date is fixed at 1 November every year and is a state holiday in Manipur, and Kuki communities in Assam and Nagaland keep the same day.

Kut belongs to the hill peoples of the Kuki-Chin-Mizo group, who share ancestry and folklore across Manipur, Mizoram, Assam, Nagaland, Myanmar's Chin State and parts of Bangladesh. The Manipur government's festival page notes that different tribes call it by different names, Chavang Kut and Khodou among them, but the purpose is the same: thanks for the harvest after a year of hard work in the fields.

Autumn, jhum and the name

Chavang is the Kuki word for autumn. The Kukis count four seasons: Khal, the dry season, Chuh, the rains, Chavang, autumn, and Phalbi, winter. Kut is the common word for a festival among Chin-Kuki-Mizo peoples, though some official pages translate it as "harvest", so you will see Chavang Kut given as both "autumn festival" and "autumn harvest".

The timing comes from jhum, the shifting cultivation that hill villages lived by. Jhum rice is usually cut in November, and the festival came once the grain was stored. Before 1 November became the fixed date, each village held Kut when its own harvest was done. The MyGov page on the festival puts it simply: there is no written rule for how Kut must be kept.

One origin story, told by Jangkhochon Hangsing in Eastern Mirror in 2014, places the ancestors in the Kabaw valley of present-day Myanmar. After three years of famine, the fourth year's harvest was so large that the chief held a feast lasting many days, and the feast was repeated every year after. Other tellings trace Kut to a time of nature worship. These are community stories, and the sources do not agree on one.

How a village kept Kut

Older Kut lasted several days, with weeks of work before it. The order below is pieced together from community accounts; villages differed.

1. Weeks before
   Getting ready

   Families brewed rice beer, prepared meat, gathered firewood and set aside produce for the shared feast.

2. Morning
   The gong

   A large gong, the dahpi, was sounded from the chief's house to open the festival.

3. Morning
   Thanksgiving

   The village priest made offerings to thank the giver of the harvest and asked for a good season ahead, then shared ju, rice beer, with villagers and guests.

4. Afternoon
   The common feast

   Each household brought food and drink to a shared courtyard or ground. For the day, rank between families mattered less.

5. Afternoon
   Games

   Young men jumped over buffaloes, climbed greased bamboo poles and threw the suhtum, a six-foot rice pestle. Young women competed at winnowing.

6. Evening
   Songs and dances

   Singing and dancing to drums and animal horns. Autumn was also the season for courting.

Under colonial rule and outside influences, much of this faded. EastMojo reports that Christian groups opposed the revival at first, and that Kut became a cultural festival as more of the community became Christian. Town celebrations now add cultural shows, concerts and pageants, and some community writers worry that these crowd out the thanksgiving at the centre of the day.

From village feast to state festival

The sources give two dates for the revival in Manipur. EastMojo and the Incredible India portal say Kut was reintroduced in 1962. The Churachandpur district website and the 2014 Eastern Mirror account say the first state-level Chavang Kut was held at Keithelmanbi village on 1 November 1979. Kukis in Assam followed in 1988, by the same Eastern Mirror account.

The state-level Kut grew into a large public show. In about 2010 it was held at the 1st Manipur Rifles parade ground in Imphal, with the governors of Manipur and Mizoram as chief guests and 21 tribal contestants in the Miss Kut pageant. In 2022 it moved to Tuibong in Churachandpur district, on the theme "Unity through culture". Dance troupes came from many tribes, Nagas and Meiteis took part, and the state presented Kut as a day for all of Manipur.

Kut since 2023

The ethnic violence that began in Manipur in May 2023 changed this. A PTI report from 1 November 2025 said the state-level festival had been suspended since 2023, and that the Kuki-Zo community had stayed away from it that year. Ginza Vualzong, spokesperson of the Kuki-Zo Council, said the community had decided to skip its largest festival and did not expect to celebrate until it got some kind of solution from the government. The Governor and the former chief minister still issued Kut greetings that day.

A 2025 opinion piece in NE Now said the conflict had moved Kut from the Imphal valley to the hills. 1 November is still on Manipur's 2026 holiday list. How a family marks it now varies, so ask rather than assume.

Kut across the states

Kuki groups in Nagaland also keep Mim Kut in January, after the maize harvest. In Nagaland, Chavang Kut comes a month before the Hornbill Festival. In Manipur's valley, the same autumn weeks bring the Meitei family festival Ningol Chakouba.

What to write

Kut

A festival; the common word for traditional festivals among Chin-Kuki-Mizo peoples

Chavang

Autumn, one of the four Kuki seasons

Kut Chibai

Kut greetings; chibai is a greeting meaning hello in Mizo-related languages such as Hmar

Jhum

Shifting cultivation on cleared hill slopes

Ju

Rice beer, shared after the thanksgiving in older Kut

Dahpi

The large gong that opened the festival

Suhtum

Rice-pounding pestle, thrown in a strength contest

See every festival date in the 2026 calendar.

How to wish someone on Kut Festival

A Kut wish gives thanks for the harvest and asks for peace, health and a full granary in the year ahead. Kut Chibai, meaning Kut greetings, is the form Kuki bodies use in print, and a plain Happy Kut is fine. Since 2023 the conflict in Manipur has kept many Kuki-Zo families from celebrating, and some have lost homes, so for them a quiet message about peace and family suits better than talk of parties. Leave politics out of the card.

Write a few lines in your own words, pick a design and share it as one link on WhatsApp, Instagram or anywhere else. They open an animated card made just for them, with no app and no sign-up.

Language tip: English, Thadou-Kuki and other Kuki-Chin languages.

When is Kut Festival in each year?

Kut Festival is on 1 Nov every year. Only the weekday changes.

• 2026Sunday 1 Nov
• 2027Monday 1 Nov
• 2028Wednesday 1 Nov

Frequently asked questions