I think many of you know already that from my previous posts that Nepal follows a different calendar than the Gregorian calendar. So the months are different and the start and end of the months do not match with the Gregorian calendar. Also Nepali people have lots of festivals according to their own calendar.
On Sunday, 15 January, it was 1st of Magh 2068. This day is called Maghe Sankranti. It is the end of winter and start of warmer days in Nepal which is also believed to bring an end to the ill-omened month of Poush when all religious ceremonies are forbidden.
Normally people go to holy rivers around the country like Devghat, Dolalghat, Sankhamul Ghat to take a holy dip in the morning and offer auspicious food like laddoos (sesame seeds candy ball), chaku (molasses), ghee (clarified butter), sweet potatoes, yam, khichari (mixture of rice and lentils) and green leaf spinach to the gods. Then in the afternoon and evening there will be a bhoj (get together) to eat all these food they have prepared.
Chaku (Molasses) is a viscous by-product of the processing of sugar cane, grapes or sugar beets into sugar.
Laddoos (sesame seeds candy ball) is made with black or white sesame seed and chaku . They are sweet like candy and very tasty.
In Newari culture, this day is also known as ‘Ghyo-Chaku Salu’ which means the day to eat chaku (molasses) and ghee (clarified butter).
Days leading to this festival, you will see vendors in the street selling lots of sweet potatoes and yam as well as molasses and black and white sesame candy balls all across the country. I love the white ones 🙂
When I was in Nepal, I remember going to my grand ma’s house with my brother and she would put mustard oil on our head and bless us. Then we would be given khichari with melted Ghee and Chaku with sweet potatoes and yam. I really miss those days.
Happy Maghe Sankranti!!!
nepaliaustralian 
माघे
सक्रान्ति अनि माघी पर्वको अवसरमा देश
बिदेशमा बस्नुहुने
सम्पुर्ण मगर
समुदाय र थारु
समुदाय सहित
नेपालीहरुमा शुभ
कामना व्यक्त
गर्दछु । -सुरेऩ्द्र सिँह
mahottari,nepal celebrating maghe sankranti with preparing of (tilko laddos)and other many laddos ,laddos are made by seeds. It is preparing one day ago and another day eat .
Interesting what you wrote. Till now I dont know.
I m happy to know you blog and you…..
Thanks Basundhara
Interesting! What a joy, this internet. It opens contact with people we’d never have interacted with before, seeing snippets of places most would only see through National Geographic.
Good stuff!
I feel so glad I started blogging. I am learning so many things first hand now through lots of lovely people like you out there. 🙂 🙂 🙂
Interesting! The sweets look yummy! 🙂
They really are but I can’t find them in Sydney 😦
Laddoos and ghee, those are words for eatables in my language. I didn’t know nepali had words of urdu in it; or is that the other way around?
Sanskrit is the basis for Nepali language as well as Urdu. Both Laddoos and ghee are from Sanskrit that’s why you can understand them :). I am sure there are more common words.