Judshital festival being celebrated in Mithila region
MAHOTTARI: APRIL. 15 – The customary Judshital festival is celebrated with much fervour in the Mithila region of the Madhesh State today.
Apart from the districts of the Madhesh State, this festival is also celebrated in the neighbouring Madhubani, Jhanjharpur, Sitamadhi and Sivahar districts of India.
The festival, which formally started on Thursday, is observed today with the oldest person in the family sprinkling the holy water and flower petals offered to the clan deity on the heads of the family members in blessing and partaking the auspicious sweets and cookies.
The family elders give blessings to the younger members for their health and happiness.
The holy water is also sprinkled over the plants and on the foot of the trees around the house in the belief that doing this would provide peace and coolness.
Special delicacies like Bari and Karahi are cooked and eaten on the occasion. The youngsters splash mud at each other in celebration.
A variety of cultural programmes are also held on this day.
Judshital festival is the festival of worshipping nature, according to Maithili literature expert Laxman Jha. In this festival, holy water is applied to both human beings and plants.
On the day of this festival, people do not cook food in the oven. They consume food cooked on the previous day.
Since this festival is associated with reducing the heat in both literal and figurative sense, they do not cook food on this day and consume the food already prepared a day ago.
-RSS
