Janai Purnima & Raksha Bandhan – Festivities in Nepal

Janai Purnima comes on the full moon day in the month of Shrawan. It is one of the most important holy thread festivals of the Hindus in Nepal. On this special day, Nepalese men, especially the Brahmins and the Chettries, bathe in sacred rivers such as the river Vishnumati and the river Bagmati and perform an annual change of their “Janai”. Janai is a cotton string worn across the chest by Hindu men. It is only given to males during the religious ceremony of Bratabandhan, which is a formal process of accepting individuals to religion. It is believed that sacred Janai protects them from the dangers of the coming year.

On this same day, we celebrate another special festival called Rakshya Bandhan. It is celebrated on the full moon day in the month of Sravana in the lunar calendar. The word Raksha means protection, whilst Bandhan is the verb to tie. Hence, the meaning of Raksha Bandhan is a bond of protection. On the occasion of this festival, sisters generally apply tilak to the forehead of their brothers, tie the Rakhi to the wrist of their brothers and do arati and pray for their good health & long life. The brother in return offers a gift to his sister and vows to look after her.

Those who are unable to meet their sister, go to the nearest temple and take “Tika” and “Dora” on their right hand from the Priest. The priest put “Tika and Dora” and chants Mantras of blessing.

At The Green Lion Nepal, we also celebrated these festivals with our International participants as our programs focus on Cultural Immersion. Participants actively engage in the rituals and get to know the Nepali culture up close and that gives them a feeling of acceptance to the new culture and also knowledge about its features.

 

On this auspicious day, we brought the Tika and Dora from the temple to celebrate the rituals at our centre. The Priest of the temple had already chanted the Mantra on Tika and Dora. Before breakfast, all the participants gathered in the dining hall for the program. Before starting the rituals, our Country Director Mr Rajesh educated the participants about the festival and how important it is to the Nepali culture and its people.

Then we started the rituals according to the seniority of the participants. Our team members chanted Mantras and tied Doras on participants’ right hands and gave tikas on their forehead. All the participants were excited and happily joined these rituals.

On the same day, there was another local festival called the Kwati Purny. In this festival, we make a traditional Nepalese dish with nine types of sprouted beans and consumed on this day. Kwati is known to be a portion of healthy food in Nepal. Therefore, we consume this dish to signify its nutritional benefits as well as its cultural importance. They say that it has strong healing powers for cold and cough. Since it contains a variety of beans, this dish is loaded with proteins and so it helps sick people to regain their energy.

To celebrate this day at our Green Lion Center, we prepared a special Lunch for the participants where they got the chance to taste Kwati.

Happy Janai Purima and Rakshya Bandhan!

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