Maghe Sankranti: Festival of Atoning For Sins

Siddhi B. Ranjitkar

On the first day of the month called Magha (Jan-Feb.) in the Vikram calendar, Nepalis celebrate the Maghe Sankranti: the festival of atoning for sins and of alleviating poverty. Various communities of Nepalis celebrate it following their age-old tradition. For example, one of the main ethnic groups of Terai called Tharus and indigenous peopled Kiratis celebrate it as a new year. The Magar ethnic community celebrates it as a national festival. Other communities celebrate it atoning for sins.

Maghe Sankranti ranks only next to the Dashain and Tihar festivals in Nepal. Nepalis in general celebrate this festival to welcome a seasonal change from the cool non-auspicious winter to the auspicious spring season. This day opens a calendar of the month that is full of auspicious days for performing religious ceremonies and for wedding and for other important social events such as adulthood ceremony of boys and mock marriages of young girls. For Nepalis, from this day on, the sun moves toward the Tropic of Cancer.

One important features of this festival is Nepalis invite their married daughters, sisters and their spouses to the festival feast. Upon their arrival, the elders bless them and hold a family feast in the evening to see them off only the next morning.

The Tharu community celebrates the Maghe Sankranti as New Year in Terai. They make major household decision on this day. They close all household accounts on the eve of the Maghe Sankranti. So, the first day of the Magha month serves them as a New Year day. They have a tradition of choosing a household head from among the male family members on this day to manage the household business for a year. On this day, the new family head makes major decisions such as the crops they would plant in the year.

Other ethnic people particularly Rais and Limbus celebrate this festival as a spring fair. Traditionally, they collect wild tubers from the nearby forest to eat on this day. They burn some of these wild roots in a fire as an offering to the fire god. They consider the ashes as the blessing from the fire god, and they use it for applying as a ‘tike’ on their foreheads. By tradition, they begin plowing the field after the celebration of this festival.

Nepalese people in general go to the nearest confluence of rivers to take a holy dip in the water on the Maghe Sankranti day in the morning. There, they perform a purification rite by dipping their hands with sesame seeds in the water, and sprinkling the water on their bodies. Thereafter, they take a holy dip in the water of the confluence of rivers. After taking the dip in the water of the river confluence, they offer worship to Lord Madhav. For Hindus, the confluences of two rivers are sacred; those of three rivers are the holiest sites for performing religious ceremonies.

In order to serve pilgrims, vendors pitch camps near such confluences for the night. They serve food and drinks to pilgrims at night. Youths spend the whole night singing, dancing and drinking. Next morning, they take a holy dip in the water at the confluence before offering worship to Lord Madhav or Lord Shiva.

In the eastern region of Nepal, pilgrims congregate at the confluence of Sapta Koshi (Seven Koshi Rivers) to celebrate the festival of Maghe Sankranti. Some people unable to go to this confluence but wish to earn merits visit the Kankai River for the holy ablutions. They believe that by doing so, they gain as mush merits as visiting the Sapta Koshi confluence.

Major religious fairs similar to the one held at the confluence of Sapta Koshi, and another on the bank of Kankai River are held in other places of the eastern Nepal, too, on this day of Magha.

A season of a religious fair begins at Dhanusha-dham in Janakpur on the Maghe Sankranti day. From this day on, devotees visit Dhanusha-dham every Sunday to perform worship to the divine bow called Shiva-dhanu. Lord Shiva gave it to King Janak, the pious ruler of the Mithila kingdom, in appreciation of the fire worship he had performed to Lord Shiva. The place is called Dhanusha-dham means the place of divine bow. King Janak set the condition that he would give his beloved daughter ‘Sita’ in marriage to the man who would lift and break it. Only Ram the crown prince of Ayodhaya kingdom could do the job. Thereafter, both Sita and Ram divinities in the human forms got married. He is believed to be the human form of Lord Vishnu. Sita is believed to be the incarnation of Goddess of Wealth called Laksmi.

In the central region of Nepal, devotees congregate at Devighat: the confluence of Sapta Gandaki (Seven Gandaki Rivers) near Bharatpur, Chitwan to celebrate the Maghe Sankranti festival. It is mentioned in the Barah Puran that devotees gain merits if they take a holy dip in the waters of the confluence of Seven Gandaki Rivers on this day. So, hundreds of thousands of people gather there before dawn. The place is so holy, and the day is so auspicious for Hindus that they perform important ceremonies such as marriages and adulthood ceremonies at this place on this day.

The Kathmandu-Valley people visit the confluences of two rivers at Sankhamool in Patan. Every community in Kathmandu celebrates this day following the tradition. Vendors start selling yams and tubers in the Kathmandu vegetable markets a few days before the Maghe Sankranti. So, customers may choose any roots from a mountain of yams piled up at each market place. In addition, customers find the small ready-to-eat sesame-seed balls packed in cellophane bags, homemade butter called ‘ghyeo’ and purified molasses called ‘chaku.’ All these items together make a special dish for celebrating the Maghe Sankranti Day.

Nevah the natives of the Kathmandu Valley call this festival “Ghyeo Chaku Sanu”, as the main dish of this day is made of the home-made butter called ‘ghyeo’ and the purified molasses called ‘chaku’ along with other foods such as boiled yam, meat, sweetmeat (Lakhamari), and balls made of sesame seeds, especially made for this day. Married Nevah daughters and sisters do not dine at their homes on this day, as they believe that it is not auspicious for them to eat at their husband’s home. So, they visit their parents. The mother or a senior-most woman in a family blesses them and their children applying warm mustard-seed oil with black beans on their heads. They do so while sitting on the warm winter sun. Most of Nevah apply mustard-seed oil on their back and bake it in the warn sun on this day believing that it takes off the winter cold from their bodies.

In the Western region of Nepal, a religious fair takes place at the Dhunge-sanghu in Pokhara on the bank of the Seti River. On the eve of the Maghe Sankranti, a large number of people gather there to drink, sing, and dance the whole night. It becomes a night festival fair for youths. Next morning, they take a holy dip in the waters of the Seti River and atone for all the sins they have committed in the past year.

A large number of devotees take a holy dip in the waters at the confluence of the Kaligandaki River and the Trishuli River in Devighat. They believe that all sorts of more than thirty three thousands Hindu deities assembly there on this day in other words a stream of those deities meets there making it the confluence of three rivers means the holiest possible confluence for the Hindus. So, their offerings made at this place on this day go to all of these deities. They earn huge merits making small offerings to all these deities at this confluence of two major rivers in Nepal.

In the mid-Western region of Nepal, a religious fair is held at the pond called Tapa Kunda in the Deukhuri Valley, 27 km west of Lamahi on the Maghe Sankranti day. People divert the water from the nearby hot spring to make a pond; hence, its name is Tapa Kunda means a hot water pond. Natives toss a coin in it and then take a dip in the water and attempt to retrieve the coin from the pond. If they are successful their wishes will be met. Then, they hold the holy water of the pond in their cupped hands and offer it to the sleeping Parsu: one of the many incarnations of Lord Vishnu. They also make offerings to Lord Shiva in the nearby temple. Some of them also attempt to go around the big stone that is lying in front of the temple in the belief that their wishes will be met. This stone is believed to be the holy bull called ‘Nandi’: the companion of Lord Shiva. There is also a temple to the Boar-headed God called Baraha believed to be the third incarnation of Lord Vishnu. Some people offer a sacrificial lamb to this god. On this occasion of Maghe Sankranti festival, not only Nepalis but also pilgrims from across the southern border visit this holy place.

Thus, Maghe Sankranti is an important festival celebrated by almost all Nepalis belonging to various ethnic groups and religion following the tradition set by their ancestors.

January 15, 2010.