New Year
New Year's Day falls on the first day of the waxing moon. Traditionally, traders used to close their ledgers and open new account books on the first day of Nepal Sambat.
Newars observe New Year's Day by performing Mha Puja (Nepal Bhasa: म्हपुजा), a ritual to purify and empower the soul for the coming New Year besides praying for longevity. During this ceremony, family members sit cross-legged in a row on the floor in front of mandalas (sand paintings) drawn for each person. Offerings are made to the mandala, and each family member is presented auspicious ritual food which includes boiled egg, smoked fish and rice wine.
Outdoor celebrations of the new year consist of cultural processions, pageants, rallies and functions in which the prime minister and other government leaders participate. Marking a break from tradition, Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai gave his speech at the New Year's Day programme in 2011 in Nepal Bhasa. Streets and market squares are decorated with arches, gates and banners bearing new year greetings.
Read more about this topic: Nepal Sambat
Famous quotes containing the word year:
“Still let my tyrants know, I am not doomed to wear
Year after year in gloom, and desolate despair;
A messenger of Hope comes every night to me,
And offers for short life, eternal liberty.”
—Emily Brontë (1818–1848)
“A whole village-full of sensuous emotion, scattered abroad all the year long, surged here in a focus for an hour. The forty hearts of those waving couples were beating as they had not done since, twelve months before, they had come together in similar jollity. For the time Paganism was revived in their hearts, the pride of life was all in all, and they adored none other than themselves.”
—Thomas Hardy (1840–1928)