Kathmandu, January 14:

Hindu devotees along with other communities today observed the Maghe Sankranti, taking baths and worshipping Gods at lakes and riverbanks across the country.

The government has declared national holiday on Maghi festival for the first time to celebrate it as a national festival. It is observed on the first day of the holy month of Magh. It brings an end to the cold month of Poush (December-January) in accordance with the Nepalese lunar calendar when all religious ceremonies are forbidden. The festival is celebrated by eating ghee and chaku, vegetables and yam, and by donating charity to the poor after taking holy dips in rivers. Devotees took holy dips at Devghat, Dolalghat, Baraha Kshetra, Ridi, Triveni and other rivers across the country.

Urmila Chaudhary, district chairperson of the Common Forum for Kamalari Freedom, said, “Maghi is our greatest festival. Kamalaris return home a day before Maghi. They are free to live their life in their own way for one week.”

Kamlari is a system where the labourers used to be sold to landlords for a year’s contract after the first week of the Maghi festival. That’s why, she said, “Maghi is also known as Mukti Parva or the salvation festival of the Tharu community.”