The original Gond festivals were associated with the first eating of
the new crops and fruits. In Chait (March) a festival called Chaitrai
is observed in Bastar. A pig or fowl with some liquor is offered to
the village god, and the new urad and semi beans of the year's crop
are placed before him uncooked. The people dance and sing the whole
night and begin eating the new pulse and beans. In Bhadon (August)
is the Nawakhai or eating of the new rice. The old and new grain is
mixed and offered raw to the ancestors, a goat is sacrificed, and they
begin to eat the new crop of rice. Similarly when the mahua flowers,
from which country spirit is made, first appear, they proceed to the
forest and worship under a saj tree.
Before sowing rice or millet they have a rite called Bijphutni or
breaking the seed. Some grain, fowls and a pig are collected from the
villagers by subscription. The grain is offered to the god and then
distributed to all the villagers, who sow it in their fields for luck.