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Gai Jatra is being celebrated today

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KATHMANDU: AUGUST 23 – Gai Jatra, (Gai means Cow and Jatra means Festival) is a festival celebrated in Nepal, mainly in Kathmandu valley by the Newar community. The festival is generally celebrated in the month of Bhadra (August–September).

It is continuously celebrated for seven nights and eight days. Annually, the Gai Jatra begins with a mash of people and noticeable Tahamacha, the day after Janai Purnima (Gunhi Punhi) and is celebrated until a day before Krishna Janmasthami.

The festival of cows is one of the most popular festivals in Nepal. It is said people in ancient times started worshipping Yamaraj, “the god of death” on this day. The festival of cows is celebrated in the Kathmandu Valley to commemorate the death of loved ones. As part of the festival family members of the deceased of the past year send people mostly children. dressed as cows to parade on the streets. Gai Jatra is a time to remember lost ones and also to ease the pain.

It is also celebrated in various places like Kathmandu, Patan, and Bhaktapur. Kathmandu is considered to be the main source of this festival as the king who started this festival was from this city.

Traditionally every family who had a death in the family during the preceding year must participate in a procession through the streets of Kathmandu leading a cow. If a cow is unavailable then a young kids dressed as cow is considered a fair substitute. However, there started tradition of leading a cow with kids in funny costumes.

Origin of Gai Jatra

Pratap Malla, lost his very young son. His wife, the queen was in great misery. The king was very disappointed to see the condition of his queen. King after millions of tries could not make the queen smile. Pratap announced that anyone who could make the queen laugh would be rewarded adequately.

Pratap Malla asked to bring the cow procession before the sad queen. Then people tried their best with different costumes and humorous acts. The dance and procession finally gave the queen a smile on her face. The smile at the moment was temporary but the procession gave the queen a big relief. She knew that there are several death in the city during the period and she is not alone. Death is a natural phenomenon and no one has control over it.

Hence, from the day King Pratap Malla started the tradition of cow procession with boys with different funny makeups in funny costumes. The boys even put on tails and makeup like monkeys and Hanuman walk through the city road to show people that death is the truth in life and everyone has to face it one day. The Gai Jatra tradition slowly developed into doing humorous acts including jokes, satires, mockery and lampoon in the Gai Jatra days.

After the cow procession is over, in the afternoon, everyone takes part in another tradition in which the participants dress up and wear masks. There also people enjoy the moments with songs, jokes, mockery and humour until late evening.

Gai Jatra is a festival that enables people to accept the reality of death and to prepare themselves for the life after death. It heals the grief and sorrow, at least a little, when people see the cow possession and realize people die, and we are not alone in the country who lost our loved ones.