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Gaijatra

In this festival teen-aged boys dressed up in the attire of a cow parade in the streets of the town. This custom spring from the belief that cows help the members of the family, who have died within that year, to travel to heaven smoothly. Some are also dressed up as an ascetic or a fool for achieving the same objective to their dead family members. Groups of mimics improvise short satirical enactments on the current sociopolitical scenes of the town to the entertainment of the public. The week beginning from Janai Poornima actually unfolds a season of good many religious and cultural activities. All the Buddhist monasteries open their gates to the visitors to view their bronze sculptures and collection of painting for a week. At Patan, one observes the festival of Mataya at this time. The festivity of Gaijatra itself lasts for a week enlivened by the performance of dance and drama in the different localities of the town. The spirit of the old festival is being increasingly adapted by Cultural Centres, newspapers and magazines of fling humor and satire on the Nepalese social and political life.