Here is your short paragraph on Lai Haraoba Festival:
This festival is the most vibrant and colourful festival of the Manipur Valley. This is a socio—religious festival. The meaning of the term ‘Lai Haraoba’ is the ‘pleasure of the gods’.
The main function of the festival is the invocation and worship of the pre-Hindu Meitei deities called ‘Umanglais’ (deities of the woods).
It is performed by all the ‘Salais’ in common, is held generally in the month of May in honour of the village deity “Thangjing-Mayamba” and the main performers are the “maibas” and the “maibis”.
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The invocation of the deity is done by a maibi who suddenly falls into a trance and during this state of trance utters intelligible and unintelligible sentences, predictions and prophecies concerning the village people.
They then enact dance—dramas portraying the creation of the earth, the coming of life on earth, the birth of a child, its growth into youth, finding a mate, domestic life etc.
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The various rituals begin in the late morning and last up to the early part of the night for about a fortnight.