Jagat Sundar Bwonekuthi marks Sakimana Punhi

By A Staff Reporter 

Kathmandu, Nov. 10: The Jagat Sundar Bwonekuthi school celebrated the Sakimana Punhi festival on its premises on Tuesday by holding an exhibition of various objects related to Newa culture and life.

Costumes, jewellery, food, and worship items used by Nepali families to carry out various rituals from birth to death were displayed at the exhibition inaugurated by the school’s founding Principal Ratna Devi Kasha.

Likewise, performances were held to display the different festivals the Newa community celebrates throughout the year, the food items eaten on those occasions and the puja ceremonies performed. 

Sunita Manandhar, present principal of the Bwonekuthi, hoped that the exhibition would make it easier for the school’s students to study the subject ‘Yen Dey Mhaseeke’ mandated by the Kathmandu Metropolitan City.

Thousands of children from schools across Kathmandu Valley viewed the exhibition.

The Punhi, celebrated on the full moon day of the Nepali month of Kartik, is an occasion when people create and display pictures and pieces of art from roasted beans, sweet potato and taro. 

Sakimana includes two Nepal Bhasa words Saki and Mana which mean taro (Pidalu) and boiling respectively. That is why Sakimana Punhi is known as a day to eat boiled taro.