Dashain begins with Ghatasthapana (Pictures)

Nabin Babu Gurung

Kathmandu, Oct 3

This year’s Dashain festival began with Ghatasthapana on Thursday.

Ghatasthapana marks the beginning of the 15-day Dashain festival, the biggest and longest festival of Nepali Hindus. It falls on Ashwin Shukla Pratipada, or the first day of the bright fortnight in the month of Ashwin according to the Hindu calendar.

On Ghatasthapana, Hindus place a ghada (pitcher) in their homes and also sow barley seeds in a bed of clean soil and sand to prepare jamara (barley shoots). The jamara is offered along with tika as the prasad of Goddess Durga on Bijaya Dashami, the tenth day of Dashain.

On Thursday morning, Ghatasthapana was marked according to Vedic rituals amid a special ceremony at the Dashain Ghar of Hanuman Dhoka by worshiping Goddess Durga and sowing barley seeds to prepare jamara.

A band from the Nepal Army played the Mangal Dhun on the occasion.