Mahottari, April 14 : The Judshital festival celebrated wishing for health, happiness and prosperity in life has commenced in Mithila today. The customary cultural festival is celebrated with much fervour in the Mithila region of the Madhesh province on the occasion of New Year 2080 BS.
Apart from the districts of the Madhesh province, this festival is also celebrated in the neighbouring Madhubani, Jhanjharpur, Sitamadhi and Sivahar districts of India.
The festival, which formally started 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 this occasion. The youngsters splash mud at each other as a part of celebration. A variety of cultural programs are also held on this day.
Judshital festival is the festival of worshipping nature. 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
