Mha Puja... My Best Part of Tihar!

Tihar or Dipawali…the festivals of lights, when you get to see colorful lights everywhere.  This is 1 festival I wait for all the year. The life feels lighten with all the lights around. Nepalese are indeed very rich in their cultures, traditions and being a girl of a Newar community I would like to share about Mha Puja and the way it is celebrated. 

Mha Puja is celebrated on the 3^rd day of Tihar. People of other community celebrate this day as Goru Puja and Govardhan Puja. We also celebrate it as our new year Nepal Sambat. In newari language “Mha” means our body. So, this day is basically for worshiping our body or our inner self in the evening time. From the ancient time it is believed that our body is just a tool or vehicle which may get exhausted or dead but our soul is something which never dies.  Personally, I wait for this day. It’s 1 occasion in the entire year which makes you feel purified.

This year’s Mha puja was also a blast like every year. Firstly the floor is painted with red mud. Then when it dries, the mandala or mandaps are made using rice flour and vermilion (abir) (sometimes beans are also used ). 3 small mandaps are made in the top for the god, House God (Kuldevata), Yamraj and Janmaraj. Basically, a broom, Kalash and Sukunda is kept. After that the mandaps for each member of family is made. In the end, 2 small mandaps are made in the name of Yama. The mandap is given chika manda (small round shape of oil in the middle of mandala). Then it is decorated with some orange and yellow vermilion power, some flowers, puffed rice and wheat. Pomelo (Bhogote),

The eldest male member of the family sits on the top and the rest sit down accordingly with youngest in the end. My baa (father) sits on the top, then kaka (uncle), dai ( brother), hajurma (grandmother), kaki (aunt), my cousin sis, and me sit down in a row. My maa (mother) does all the process.

Here is the process how Mha puja is done at my home;

1. Firstly she worships the broom, kalash and sukunda. Once she is done with that she gives us nasal water (Putting few drops of water in your mouth and throwing it backwards from your head).

2. Then she gave us rice, flower and some vermilion powder to worship our respective mandaps.

3.    After that, tika was offered on everyone’s forehead.

4.  After that we were worshiped with wheat 3 times, and then dhups were offered to all the members.

5.  We were then worshipped with puffed rice and khyali ita (Long battis, especially made only in this occasion) was given to us. Once this ita is given to us, our main concern is not to let it go off, it is said, if it goes off we can’t eat the egg..

6. We were again worshipped with some rice again and respective bhogetes were handed over. The long thread called janaie was also handed over to us

3.      Then with left hand below and right hand above my mom hold the plate of sagun in left hand and yela (home made newari wine / rakshi) and made all of us offer it to god. Basically, a small piece of egg is dropped in the yela and the drops of yela are offered to god.

4.      Finally we were offered sagun. Mha puja was finally ended at  my place. On this day we sit and eat Bhoj, in our mandaps and the mandaps along with the plates u eat are left for a overnight.  This is 1 day of Tihar, I love it.