Sama Chakewa marked at Maitighar

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Kathmandu, Nov. 9: Members of the Tharu community celebrated the Sama Chakewa festival at Maitighar, Kathmandu on Tuesday. 

The Kathmandu Valley committee of the Tharu Women Society Nepal marked the festival, traditionally celebrated in the central plains of Nepal to symbolise the love present between brothers and sisters, in cultural attire and ornaments.

The Society has been celebrating the festival in the capital since 2004, informed coordinator Shyam Kumari Chaudari. 

Sama Chakewa formally begins on the day of Bhai Tika and ends on the full moon day (Purnima) of the Nepali month of Kartik, which, this year, was on Tuesday.

In the festival, sisters make idols of the mythical children of Krishna Sama and Chakewa as well of different kinds of birds and forests. 

They also sing folk songs. This is a festival celebrated joyously by unmarried girls. It lasts for 15 days and on the auspicious occasion of Kartik Purnima, they bathe in holy rivers and immerse these idols in the water.

According to a popular legend, Sama, a daughter of Lord Krishna, was falsely accused of having a relationship with a sage in the jungle of Brindaban, India and Krishna punished her by turning her and all sages of the forest into birds. 

But the love and sacrifice of her brother Sama returned her and the sages back to their human form.