This year Nepal Sambat has been recognized by Nepal Government. It is big news for the Kathmandu Valley Newars; they have been celebrating this day every year and raising the voice to get official recognization from the government. Here I have tried to capture some wonderful moments how people celebrated this Nepal Sambat New Year 1129 at Basantapur.
I saw some tourist celebrating this festive time with local nears too and some watching it in exciting way. I read in someone’s blog who has visited Nepal saying that Nepal celebrates so many new years. Yeah I think we’re rich in culture and so many ethnic group lives with their own identity and they all have their own New Year.
Some new year we celebrate is
Bikram Sambat – North Indian calendar named after King Bikramaditya. It was adopted by the Shah Kings
Nepal Sambat – Celebrated by the Newars, it is celebrated on the day of Maah Pooja fourth day of tihar. It is said that on this day, a newar Business man Shanka Dhar Sakhwa paid all the debt on behalf of the people of Kathmandu Valley, so the newar started celebrating it as a new life for them. So every year they started celebrating it as a new year.
Loshar – Tibetans, Gurung and Tamang have their own loshar as New Year
International Calendar – January first, this is a new year I think whole world celebrates.
Today is the third day of the festival Tihar. We celebrated it by worshiping the goddess Laxmi, the god of wealth. I have captured some pictures of this festival from the streets of Kathmandu. It is really fun to see lights all over, Kids playing Deusi and fireworks and elder people busy with shopping.
But this year something made me sad, please see the pictures below and know why I am sad. There is just one picture that made me sad, other pictures are the one which might take some of my friends abroad to past, their childhood and make them think what they are missing.
Girls Playing Bhaili, This is one kind of fun that kids have in Tihar
Gai Jatra is a festival celebrated by the Newar community of kathmandu valley every year since the malla period. We see newars celebrating this festival in different cities where there is strong pesence of newars. Now a days we see other community also particiapting in this festival. It is one of the most popular festivals of Nepal. This festival comes just a day after Janai Purnima. The festival commemorates the death of people during the span of a year. Gai Jatra is a healthy festival which enables the people to accept the reality of death and to prepare oneself for the life after death. The festival of cows is one of the most popular festivals of Nepal.
Today was the first day of the festival of Rato Macchindranath. I saw the chariot pulling for the first time, and it was a great experience for me. I enjoyed seeing the people participation in such festivals. Young guys were excited to grab the rope and pull the chariot.
This year I was lucky enough to see the Bajrayogini’s Jatra (festival) at Sankhu, Kathmandu. This is one of the major Jatra that we can see inside Kathmandu valley. I did not see much crowd as we see in jatra of Kathmandu, Bhaktapur or Lalitpur. May be since Sankhu is a small village/city east north of Kathmandu and the population is very less. Many people are not aware of this jatra, there were very less visitors to observe this jatra.
Holi, is the festival of colors. It is a Hindu festival and people in Nepal also celebrate this festival with friends and relatives and people of other communities. Here is a collection of photographs of the Holi festival at Thamel, Kathmandu. The photographs were taken during Holi celebrations by tourist and local people at Thamel.
I support Local Empowerment. So, I’m sharing this Everest Base Camp Trek to promote a new way of trekking where trekkers can empower the local service providers like lodges, guides and porters by booking services directly through them. #empoweringthehimalayas #freetriptoeverest
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