Raksha Bandhan/Janai Purnima 2080 Nepali Date by Nepali Calendar
Janai purnima 2080 (Bhadra 14th 2080) by Nepali Calendar
in Nepal is on Aug 31, 2023.
Janai Purnima, a popular Hindu festival is celebrated during the month of Shrawan in Nepal. In Nepal, Janai Purnima, a festival that is attached to morality is also known as Raksha Bandhan. People usually celebrate this festival by wearing ‘taghadharis’ popularly known as Janai on the wrist whereas especially the brahmins people change their Janai.
Moreover, Brahmins also gather around the holy river banks such as Gosainkunda to celebrated the festival. It is also believed that wearing or changing the Janai during the festival protects one’s soul from evil. During the Janai Purnima, the Newar community of Kathmandu valley celebrates the festival with the preparation of popular feasts known as ‘Kwati’. People all over Nepal celebrate this festival with their families and close ones.
. However, nowadays every house celebrates this festival.
On this day, a special dish called Kwati is prepared and is consumed as a feast with the rest of the family as a celebration. Kwati is a soup made from a mix of nine different types of sprouted beans. The nine different beans used while making Kwati commonly includes black gram, chickpea, field bean, soybean, green gram, field pea, garden pea, cowpea and rice bean. The beans are soaked for three to four days in water until the time they sprout. They are cooked with various spices to make a thick soup.
This dish is consumed on the festival of Gun Punhi, the full moon day Gunla. Gunla is the tenth month of the Nepal Era lunar calendar. It is eaten as a delicacy and for health benefits and ritual significance.
Raksha Bandhan or Rakhi is another festival of this day celebrated especially in Terai region of Nepal by Hindu and Jain. This festival is also celebrated throughout India. Raksha Bandhan means “bond of protection,” Raksha means “protection,” and Bandhan means “bond.”
They regard Raksha Bandhan is the festival of brother and sister. In this day, sisters meet her biological brothers, cousins or adopted brother-like friends and tie rakhi on her brother’s wrist. Rakhi is a colorfully woven bracelet. After rakhi, brothers and sisters pray together.
Then sisters apply tika (colorful mark) on brother’s forehead and perform an aarti wishing him a long and healthy life. In return, the brothers take promises to protect his sister and take care of her in all the circumstances. They also give gifts and money to sisters as a token of love and feed each other with sweets, fruit, and other delicious foods.
One of the oldest festivals in India and Nepal , Raksha Bandhan, also referred to as ‘Rakhi’ is a day that celebrates the bond and the love between a brother and a sister, or siblings in general. The words ‘raksha bandha’ literally mean the ‘the bond of safety and security’ that siblings promise each other, no matter the circumstances. While the dates vary each year, it is normally celebrated around this time of the year. This year, it falls on August 3, which is a Monday.
Hindus around the world believe that the festival has much historical and mythological significance. In Mahabharata, when Lord Krishna had cut his finger while using his divine discus, Draupadi had dressed up his wound using the loose end of her saree. Thus, he had promised to protect her always, and he had kept his word especially during her public humiliation in the Hastinapur royal court.