Mother’s Day in Nepal

By Siddhi B. Ranjitkar

Nepalis have been celebrating Mother’s Day since time immemorial. They celebrate this day on the new moon day in Baishak (April-May), the first month of a year in the Vikram calendar. They call this day ‘mata-thirtha aunsi’ means the day dedicated to mothers living or dead.

Nepalis celebrate this day visiting their mothers and offering sweets, fruits, yogurts and other items pleasing to their mothers. Usually, daughters bring various kinds of sweets, fruits, yogurt and hard-boiled and then fried eggs to their mothers; sons do not need to go to the mothers, as they generally live together with their parents. All family members get together customarily in the evening to honor their mothers.

Every son and daughter in turn offers a plateful of sweets, fruits and eggs to his/her mother who accepts offerings and blesses them in return. It is considered unfortunate for any offspring to miss visiting his/her mother on this day; hence this day is literally called the day to see the mother’s face.

This day is the most cheerful day for the recently married women, as they come for the first time from their husband with a porter load of appetizing food for their mothers. Usually, they dress in their best attire and wear expensive jewelry. Then they walk with a porter load of sweets, fruits, and so on. So, traffic of women dressed in their best is seen throughout the Mother’s Day in Nepal. Sons do not need to travel, as they traditionally live with the parents.

Daughters and sons whose mothers have already died visit the place called ‘mata-thirtha’ situated at about 15 km to the west of Kathmandu on the way to Thankot, and holy places elsewhere in Nepal to make offerings to the souls of their departed mothers. Mata means mother; tirtha means a holy place. Thus, this name suggests the holy place for them to visit for making offerings to the deceased mothers once a year.

A religious festival is held at ‘mata-thirtha’ on the Mother’s day for a whole day. There is a legendary natural pond at ‘mata-thirtha’ where Nepalis pay homage to their deceased mothers. Thousands of people take a quick shower in the water flowing from the nearby stone spouts, and then they go to the holy pond to make offerings to their deceased mothers. They believe that the souls of their mothers come to this natural pond to accept their offerings on this day. Thereafter, they worship Lord Shiva in lingam located next to the holy pond.

Vajracharya priests for Buddhists, and Brahmin priests for Hindus perform rituals of ancestral worship called ‘shradha’ for the clean-shaved men clients in yellow dhoti to pay homage to their deceased mothers in this place on this occasion.

Nepalis not able to visit ‘mata-thirtha’ go to Pashupati in Kathmandu and to any other holy place elsewhere in Nepal to honor their departed mothers. Hundreds of priests lined up to accept the offerings made by thousands of sons and daughters to their mothers at Pashupati. Every visitor buys a set of offerings at Pashupati and then line up to offer it to the priest standing in a line to accept on behalf of the deceased mothers. Recently, seeing the chance of benefiting from the crowd of unknown revelers, even non-priests pose as priests to take the offerings. So, careful revelers make sure that they are offering the set of offerings to the correct priest. Some priests visit the homes of their clients to accept the offerings on behalf of their deceased mothers.

A legend has it that shepherds used to quench their thrust with the cold water from this natural pond when they went to graze their cattle nearby forest. One day, one of the shepherds whose mother was already dead happened to go to drink water of this pond. Suddenly, she saw the reflection of the image of her dead mother appearing in the clean water of the pond. She was so excited with this view that within a moment she went through every house in that village to tell about how she had seen her mother’s image in the water of the pond. This day happened to be the new moon day in Baishak in the Vikram calendar. Since then Nepalis have believed that they could see the reflection of the images of their deceased mothers in the water of this holy spring. So, Nepalis from different parts of the country visit this pond on this day hoping to see the images of their departed mothers. Thus, this place came to be a holy place for those who have lost their mothers. Therefore, daughters and sons visit ‘mata-thirtha’ every year on this day, partly believing to see the images of their mothers partly paying an annual tribute to them.

Bereaved sons and daughters who cannot visit ‘mata-thirtha’ or any other holy place take a shower or a quick dip in the water of a holy river early in the morning then they offer a platter of sweets fruits and so on to a priest in the memory of their departed mothers.