Kailali, 12th January: The biggest festival of the Tharu community, Maghi, is approaching. The Tharu community, who have been living in the Terai region of western Nepal, is currently in full swing with preparations for the Maghi festival. The Tharu community is busy preparing for this festival, which is celebrated with joy as the beginning of the new year.
As the Maghi festival approaches, the Tharu settlements in Kailali, Kanchanpur and other places are bustling with activity. Family members are busy with their respective tasks to celebrate the festival in a grand manner. Men are traveling to villages to procure meat, while women are busy making duna and tapari.
Tharu Civil Society Coordinator Dil Bahadur Chaudhary informed that preparations for the festival are being carried out in full swing, including procuring food items including unripe rice and flour, tying the dunatapari, going to the forest to collect firewood, pressing mustard oil, and cleaning houses and courtyards.
He said, “Since it is customary to eat dishes such as pork, fish, snails, and crabs during Maghi, people are gathering for that.” Since this festival marks the beginning of the new year, people have started going from villages to city markets to buy new clothes. Coordinator Chaudhary said that those who have gone abroad for employment have started returning home to celebrate the festival.
Since many guests gather during Maghi, women are busy preparing food items including dhikr and roti. Preparations are being made to celebrate the festival with pomp and show, said Madhav Chaudhary of Fakalpur, Godavari Municipality-7, Kailali.
“It is difficult to find a wild boar in the village these days,” he said. “A few days ago, a meeting of the village elders was held and the responsibility of killing the wild boar, who’s wild boar should be killed, and where to get it if it doesn’t reach the village was given.”
Chaudhary said that preparations for Maghi have started a month ago, including preparing egg roti, flour for dhikr, gathering sidra, and searching for jita (a type of meat). He said that preparations for the Maghauta dance, which reflects the culture of the Tharu caste, have also begun.
“On the day of Maghe Sankranti, especially among the Tharu community, it is customary to wake up early in the morning, go to a nearby river or lake, bathe, and seek blessings from elders,” said Chaudhary. “After seeking blessings, there is a tradition of touching the food items kept separately in the house, including rice, salt, oil, and turmeric, and adding additional dishes to those items and giving them to the daughters of the house.”
During Maghi, it is customary to eat local dishes, including rice and egg rotis, dhikri, bariya, ghongi, pork, fish, and gangta. Solo and group dances and songs reflecting the various folk cultures of the Tharu community are performed and enjoyed. Similarly, fairs and festivals are also organized in villages to celebrate Maghi.
