Sohrai is one of the most important festivals of Santhals.lt is mainly celebrated in the month of October-November. In some regions,celebration take place in January.Santhal pay homage to their god and their ancestors as a thank giving for their crop, their cattle, their ploughs,and everything that has helped them to attain the harvest.  

FOLK STORY BEHIND SOHRAI.

Champagarh , affluenced kingdom where Kisku Raja had ruled. The individuals of that kingdom lived in the state of peaceful happiness as the behaviour of king was very humble. They all consider him as their God. The name of tha king was Disom pati raja. Kisku raja loved to plant flowers and cared them too that's why he knows every flower name of his garden.

The king had a beautiful queen but she isn't a fine lady. That queen had affair with a black magic man (Bonga jawae). The jungle was the place where they used to meet . And that bonga jawae always appeared as a snake in front of queen. Whenever queen went to meet she wore different coloured sarees. Just as the colour of the queen's saree was like that,the colour of snake used to appear in front of the queen .The snake's name was Kariranging Bing.

 One day the king went out on a hunt and there he killed a snake ,that snake was non another than Kariranging Bing.When queen came to know about this, the queen rolled her eyes with anger and decided to take revenge of Kariranging death. For that queen took out the bone of snake and made garland of snake bone and she burried some bone in garden from which a beautiful flower rised. She named it Kariranging flower.

After few days, Queen announced a big meeting where all people of his kingdom and nearby state had arrived.And she asked a question to name all the flowers of the garden ,if he told the correct name ,then  flowers would wither and if failed to answer he would die. So the king started to name the flowers and the flowers droop off. But no one know Kariranging name except the queen. King named all flower except that one,so he asked queen to give her six days to find its name.The king lingered everywhere but didn't get its name.

On first day king and it's subjects had organised a big puja in village where they worshipped their God (Pilchu hadam,pilchu budhi, marang buru) for good sense and long life of the king.On second day king told his subjects to worship for him in there own houses.On third day king made apology to cows for all the bad dids if he had done and then adorned all cows for their worship.

Gradually days were passing but no one got answer.So king had decided to live the rest of his days happily by singing and dancing.On fourth day ,the king invited all his relatives to meet for the last time. The king had an elder sister named Lukhi. When she heard about whole thing, she was coming in a haste to meet his beloved brother and got tired in a middle way , therefore she sat down under a tree .Above the tree there was a crow nest .There were the two chicks asking for their meals,the crow replied that the king of Champagarh was about to die and ensure them that they would eat the king as a meal and told them whole story behind the queen's question .Moreover ,crow told the name of that flower to her chicks. Fortunately, Lukhi heard their whole conversation and as she heard she ran off to the king .Where Lukhi told the whole story  behind queen's question and also told him name of the flower.

When king got to know about the flower name ,he went and named the flower to the queen. As he named, flower get withered. And when whole kingdom got to know about the queen bad intention , they killed the queen. After that , in kingdom there was a wave of happiness. To celebrate the king's victory all people started dancing and singing. That days were named as Sohrai 

From that day santhals cebrate this festival as celebrated before.