Tourism
Visit Nepal: Yomari Purni- Holding Nepal's History!
April 11, 2023 By Himalayan Hero
Yomari Purnima is a festival celebrated by the Newar community in Nepal during the full moon day of December. This festival is just one example of the many historic and cultural traditions that can be found throughout Nepal. The full moon day, also known as Poornima, holds great significance for the people of Nepal and is celebrated by various religions and cultures. Other prominent full moon days in Nepal include Janai Purnima in August, Kojagat Purnima in September, and Dhanya Poornima in December. The priest, with the help of astrology analysis calculators and the Lunar calendar (Nepal Sambat), identifies the full moon day beforehand. Visitors to Nepal can experience these cultural celebrations and witness historic preservation by planning their trip during one of these significant full moon days.
History of Newari Culture and Festivals in Nepal
Akin to agriculture, "Dhanya Poornima" hold customary beliefs and a set of shared values among the Newar society. The native Newari name of Dhanya Poornima is "Yomari Purni, which has been acquired by the amalgamation of two Newari word's "Ya" and "Mari". These words convey a special logical connotation where "Ya" holds the meaning "to like" and "Mari" means "delicacies". Concede with the name Yomari is one of the most liked delicacies. And you do not miss this traditional dish. According to Luni Nepal Calendar "Yomari Purni" is observed every second month (Thinla) from the Nepali New year.
Yomari Purnima is celebrated to share the happiness for the abundant growth of agricultural crops (Rice) and to end the season for gathering agricultural crops. The chronological record says, this Newaa community festivity to have originated in Panauti, one of the oldest historical oldest towns of Nepal. A traditional story unfolding allows us to discover dramatic incidents of a wedded couple, "Suchandra" and "Krita". History says this married couple tried to invent new eatables with the use of their first harvested rice.
While experimenting they discovered a new technique to use their rice flour, gave the flour dough a cone shape and filled, it with mouth-watering fillings using Chaku (Nepali Chocolate) Khuwa (Ricotta-Cheese), Sesame and ,Sugar. This newly invented edible was distributed to the neighborhood and then to the whole village. Villagers found it to be of their taste preference and named it as " Yamari a tasty bread when translated into English. In addition, the tale of Kuber(God of wealth)roaming around the village with a hidden identity, has also been connected. It is believed that on the same day Kuber met Suchandra and Krita where the two kind human souls offered the god of wealth with their newly invented confection of rice flour.
Pleased with the kind gesture he blessed husband and wife with an abundance of wealth after eloquent himself. The supreme power of wealth, Kuber, gave blessings of abundance wealth and end of poverty to all families who have and will prepare this fish-shaped rice dough confection-" YOMARI" and carry out all the procession of "Yomari Purni " for four days, every year on full moon day of December. Yomari is compared with the earth the upper and lower tips of "Yomari" are considered as Northern and Southern Hemisphere of the earth." Longer The tail of fish-shaped rice dough shorter will be the winter", says Mr. Shreesha Tamrakar, member of Newar Community, Newroad.
Celebration Marked by special Observance
The four-day-long festival starts from the full moon day of December and ends after four days. At the beginning or the first-day people belonging to the Newari community offer prayers to the god and prepare "Yomari" from newly harvested rice. In the case of the Kathmandu valley, people buy new packet of rice flour from the market. The rice dough is given different shapes of god and goddesses. Yomari made from fillings of black grams is worshipped as Kuber (the god of wealth), Meat as Lord Ganesh and molasses with Sesame as god Maha Maya.
The first set of prepared Yomari is separated and kept inside a grain storehouse locally called "Bhakari" and is consumed as a sacred food known as "Parsad" in local speaking. The local inhabitant of Kathmandu Valley visits a three-story Annapurna Temple located in the southern direction of Asan, New Road. Annapurna Devi is considered as a goddess of abundance grains. They worship goddess Annapurna and offer her different foods and flowers from their home. Groups of kids go around neighborhood singing Harvest Rhymes and asking for yummy rice cakes and homemade foods from housewives during the evening.
About six kilometers away from Lalitpur valley, at the villages of Hari Siddhi and Thecho, the villagers perform a masked cultural dance to mark the celebration of the festival. They get dressed in their cultural attire gather, feast and enjoy the festival to the fullest. Sacred masked dances are performed during the day of "Yomari Purni" about 27 km, South-East of Kathmandu valley, an extravagant religious celebration at the Temple of Lord Shiva locally famous as "Dhaneshwor Mahadev".
Yomari Rhymes Sang by the Children (In English)
The rich have been blessed and as have the poor, the mad and the sane are both better off than before, the sweet Yomari now brims with dark delight, the generous are beautiful; hoarders a sorry sight, we all are shivering in the cold today, bless us and we’ll be on our merry way.
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