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The recent culture of Andaman & Nicobar Islands is a fusion of various ethnic groups, religions and languages. The capital city of Port Blair features a cosmopolitan culture with various people from different parts of the world settling here. Here the regular fairs and festivals are celebrated enthusiastically by all sections of the people. Now, the people from Andaman & Nicobar celebrate many festivals.
Fairs and festivals
These islands have various communities such as Hindus, Christians, Sikhs and Muslims. Some of the major festivals celebrated in this Union Territory are:
Diwali
Shivratri
Holi
Janmastami
Ramanavami
Id
Good Friday
Christmas
The Island Tourism Festival
It is celebrated for 15 days during December and January, in Port Blair every year, and the environment gets coloured with dance, drama and music. Andaman & Nicobar administration organizes it every year. The Andaman Dog Show is one of the major attractions of this festival. Other attractions are water sports and parasailing. The cultural troupes and world-famous artists perform during this festival. Water sports competitions like the Nicobari Hodi race are organized during the festival.
Arts and Crafts
The shell and exotic wood crafts are the main crafts of the Andaman & Nicobar Islands. Cane and bamboo works from Andaman & Nicobar Islands are also very popular. The shell crafts include ashtrays, lamps, buttons and jewellery made from the polished, decorative shells. Basketry and mat making are the two other important traditional crafts of Nicobar.
Attire
As they remained away from the modern civilization, in the remote forests of the islands, many of the aboriginal tribes of these islands have not adopted to the use of cloths. The Jarwas use the adornments of shell and bark like arm bands, necklaces and waist bands. The Shompens are the wandering people and they cover the part of the body below the waist. The Sentinelese tribe don't use clothes even now.
At the same time, the people of Car Nicobar Island have completely dispensed with their traditional dress of coconut leaf petticoat or tassel and started to wear the modern clothes. Similarly the Onges, who didn't wear any dress, have adapted to the modern dress code. Use of traditional items such as necklaces made from shell, headbands and waistbands of bark fiber, which were very much part of the fashion statement of the tribes of Andaman & Nicobar, are still popular. However, the non tribal population in this island has been following regular dress code of saris, salwar kameez, shirts, trousers and coats, etc.
Food
All the tribes in these islands were the hunters till the last few years. The region is not associated with any particular form of cuisine. With increasing contacts with the modern world, the habitants of these islands are adapting to the modern food habits. You can get a wide variety of seafood in many restaurants.
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