Yoomari Punhi

By Siddhi B. Ranjitkar

By November Nepalis in general and Kathmanduites in particular complete the drying of rice crop after harvesting it in October. As most of the work is done manually, it demands heavy physical work; so, we celebrate ‘Yoomari Punhi’ to recuperate our strength after such heavy manual work in the field. After harvesting and then sun drying the rice crop, we store it in a wicker container called ‘Bhakari’; then revere it on the full moon day called ‘Yoomari Punhi’ in Nepal Bhasa and ‘Dhannya Purnima’ in Nepali. Our tradition has it that we eat the new rice crop only after revering the God of Harvest on the full moon day called ‘Yoomari Punhi’.

One day before ‘Yoomari Punhi’ Ramesh and Gaurav go to buy ‘chaku’: unrefined sugar and then sesame seeds for cooking ‘yoomari’. Grandfather Ramesh is worried about losing the grip of his grandson’s hand in the crowd of buyers and sellers of ‘chaku’ at the main market place. So, he holds the hand of Gaurav as tight as possible but Gaurav wants to see the marketplace as much as possible running around.

Ramesh brings two pieces of ‘chaku’: each of a half kilogram, and let Gaurav carry them. Gaurav is happy to carry the  ‘chaku’. Then they go to buy a kilo of sesame seeds at one of the stores. Both the grandfather and the grandson finish the shopping for celebrating ‘Yoomari Punhi.’

Shyam has already milled about ten kilo of ‘tie-chung’ rice into flour a few days ago. Flour of this sort of rice is the most appropriate for making ‘yoomari’. Judging from the name of this rice, it must have come from China or Japan or somewhere from that part of the world; rice of local breeds has already been extinct in Nepal. He uses the rice from the previous harvest, as the Newah community does not eat the newly harvested rice without making offering to the God of Harvest. He goes to a nearby water mill and milled it into flour following the tradition set by our ancestors.

On the morning of ‘Yoomari Punhi’, all family members are busy with doing one thing or another for cooking ‘yoomari’ and for preparing offerings of items.

Sarala first sets a saucepan full of water on a stove and half filled a wok called ‘karahi’ with water and sets it on fire, and then she chops the ‘chaku’ her father-in-law bought a day before. She then drops the chopped ‘chaku’ into the water in the wok and slowly cooks it into a heavy paste. Then, she fries the sesame seeds in another wok and adds it to the heavy paste of ‘chaku’. In order to make the paste of ‘chaku’ and sesame seeds thicker, she adds a few large spoonful of rice flour to it. As such, one of the recipes for cooking ‘yoomari’ is done. She then goes on working on preparing the items of offerings.

Her husband Shyam sets a large pot with water on a makeshift brick stove for boiling water, then sets a large clay pot with holes at the bottom on it for steaming ‘yoomari’ in it. Recently, most of us have been using a ‘mo-mo’-cooking pot instead of the traditional cooking pot for cooking ‘yoomari’.

Then, Shyam takes a large traditional brass container called ‘bata’ and put some of the flour he has prepared from rice a few days ago in it, and asks his spouse Sarala to pour the boiling water from the saucepan. Mixing the hot water with the flour, Shyam prepares dough, and covers it with white thin linen for preventing the moisture going out of it.

Then, grandfather Ramesh, grandson Gaurav, father Shyam and other members of the family sit in a circle keeping the container with dough, the wok with the paste made of ‘chaku’ sesame seeds and rice flour, and a circular wicker tray of about 75 cm in diameter at the center.

Every one of us takes a lump of the dough and then kneads it into ‘yoomari’: conical-or-triangular-shaped with a pointed head and a wide-opened bottom following his/her choice. After completing the kneading of dough into a ‘yoomari’, and then, taking a large spoonful of the paste from the wok, every one of us pours it into a ‘yoomari’ through its wide-opened bottom and seals it, and carefully places it on the wicker plate.

When we finish making a wicker plate full of ‘yoomari’, Shyam takes one ‘yoomari’ after another from the plate and puts it into a clay pot with bottom holes or in a ‘mo-mo’-cooking pot, and sets it on the pot with boiling water kept on fire. Thus, our family cook ‘yoomari’ once a year on the full moon day called ‘Yoomari Punhi’.

We also make figurines of three main divinities such as Ganesh: God of Success and Perfection, Laxmi: Goddess of Wealth, and Kuber: God of Treasure of dough. Thereafter, we steam them in a cooking pot.

Some of us use a cooked paste of lentils or ‘khuwa’: a kind of cottage cheese instead of the paste made of unrefined sugar, sesame seeds and flour for cooking ‘yoomari’.

We make small-sized ‘yoomari’ for offering to deities and for offering to youngsters when they come begging for ‘yoomari’ in the evening.

After setting aside small-sized ‘yoomari’ for deities and youngsters, every one of us breakfasts on at least two large ‘yoomari’ in the morning. Children certainly eat ‘yoomari’ as many as they like or could.

The Newah community in the Kathmandu Valley and in other places celebrates this full moon day in honor of the newly harvested-rice crop, and we call this day “Yooomari Punhi”: the day of special Newah cuisine. “Yoo” means favorite, “mari” means bread in Nepal Bhasa. Thus, yoomari means favorite bread.

In the evening, one of us usually Sarala visits the local shrine to Ganesh and offers Him yoomari and then goes to nearby other shrines to offer yoomari to other divinities.

Thereafter, Sarala makes offerings to the newly harvested rice crop stored in wicker bins. She places the figurines of Ganesh, Laxmi and Kuber on the rice bins, and performs worship to the God of Harvest and these three divinities made of dough. After the worship, she inserts a number of other yoomaris into the rice bins.

Every morning and every evening for four days, she performs worship to the God of Harvest, and the three-dough divine figurines inserted into the rice stored in a wicker bin. On the fourth day, she performs the last worship to the God of Harvest and these divine figurines. Then, she takes yoomari out of the rice bins and the divine figurines. She distributes these yoomaris to the family members as the blessing from the God of Harvest.

In the evening of the full moon day called ‘Yoomari Punhi’, grandfather Ramesh and grandson Gaurav sit together with a small basket full of small-sized ‘yoomari’ waiting for some children to come begging for ‘yoomaris’.

We have a tradition that youngsters go from one house to another asking for yoomari in the evening on this full moon day. While waiting for yoomari at the door, they chant, “the day of ‘Yoomari Punhi of this year has come, give us two ‘yoomaris’; whoever gives yoomaris is a beautiful lady; whoever does not is an ugly witch.” So, nobody keeps them waiting for ‘yoomaris’ for long.

As soon as some youngsters start chanting at the door, Ramesh takes out two ‘yoomaris’ from the basket, and give them to Gaurav signaling him to go and give them to youngsters at the door.

We believe that the Sun starts its northward travel on ‘Yoomari Punhi’ day; so the day becomes longer by the tip of yoomari starting on this full moon day and then it goes on lengthening every day from this day onward.

We believe that King Ansu Verma had set the tradition of celebrating the “Yoomari Punhi” festival in Nepal. So, this culture must be more than one thousand year old, as King Ansu Verma was one of the Licchavi kings who ruled Nepal from 400 to 800 in the Gregorian calendar.

Concerning the origin of celebrating the festival of ‘Yoomari Punhi’, a legend has it that once the God of Treasure called Kuber wanted to test the virtue of the merchant couple in the country called Panchaldesh. So, Lord Kuber disguised as a destitute old man, went to the area where the couple called Suchandra and his spouse lived. One day, Suchandra’s wife saw a poor old man in front of their house. She invited him to her house and then feed him on good foods.

Lord Kuber disguised in a human form, satisfied with the virtue of Suchindra and his wife, changed back to his original form. Seeing the God of Treasure in front of them, the couple quickly prostrated at the feet of the God, and asked the Lord for his blessing.

Lord Kuber advised the couple to perform a special offering to the newly harvested rice crop as the God of Harvest on the full moon day of Thila Tho in the Nepal Sambat (in the Marga month in the Vikram calendar). The merchant and his wife did what the Lord told them to do. The result was a bountiful rice crop. Thereafter, every household has followed this annual offering to the rice crop the couple performed every ear. Thus, the tradition of celebrating “yoomari punhi” on the full moon day in the month of Marga was set.

In addition, the Newah community cooks ‘yoomari’ on special occasions such as birthdays of children and on the day of feeding a special dish to a pregnant daughter. On the children’s birthdays we cook yoomari and make a string of number of yoomaris matching to the number of years of the age of the child has reached to put around the child’s neck on his/her birthday. This is done to the children until they reach twelve years of age. We also have a tradition of feeding a pregnant daughter on a special dish called “Dhaubaji” a few days before her expected delivery day.  On this occasion, yoomari forms one of the main items of the dish.

Every full moon day is an auspicious day for both Hindu and Buddhist Nepalis. So, we perform one kind of offering or another to our respective deities on full moon days. The full moon day in the month of Marga (December-January) in the Vikram calendar is one such auspicious day when Nepalis of various communities perform various sorts of offerings to different gods according to the customs and tradition of the concerned communities follow. However, on this day most Nepalis make offerings to the God of Harvest, as this full moon day is celebrated after the farmers have stored their rice crop after drying it on the sun. Therefore, this day is called by the names such as Yoomari Punhi or Dhannya Purnima.

Hill Nepalis call this day “Dhannya purnima.” Dhannya means un-husked rice, purnima means a full moon day. The name thus derived from the main cereal crop and the full moon day suggests that the day is the day for making offerings to the God of Harvest. So, we perform special offering to the newly harvested-rice crop on this day, and receive blessing from the God of Harvest. A tradition has it that we Nepalis eat the new rice crop only after revering the God of Harvest.

On this day, Nepalis from different parts of the country visit Dhannya-swore Mahadev in Banepa about 25 km to the east of Kathmandu. We call him Dhannya because he blesses devotees with a bumper food crop. So, Hindu Nepalis in general perform worship to Dhannya-swore Mahadev covering his image with the holy leaves called “belpatra” on this full moon day in appreciation of the bumper rice crop that the god has bestowed upon us.

Some other hill Nepalis call this full moon day “Gaindu Purnima.” Gaindu means the cattle-protecting god; Purnima means a full moon day. On this day, we perform worship to God Gaindu in our animal stalls. That is why we call this full moon day “Gaindu Purnima.” We believe that we ward off demons and evil spirits performing a Gaindu puja in our cattle stalls.

Note: Newah is a cultural community than an ethnic.
This year’s ‘Yeomari’ is on December 12, 2008