Page 43 - Cornice_Grade 4_Neat

Mha Puja

Mha Puja is a yearly ritual celebrated by the
The Best Gift Newar people in and outside Nepal. The word M-h-a

means self, and Mha Puja means worshiping the self.
I Ever It is the worshiping of the god inside us. Mha Puja Write Up on Festival
is celebrated in Tihar. It is performed on New Year’s
Received Day of Nepal Sambat, the national lunar calendar of
Nepal. The celebration of Nepal Sambat started from
October 880 AD. It is performed to purify and em-

One fine day I woke up with a whispering power the soul. It is believed that if one does Mha
sound from the nearby room. It was the day of my Puja, the person will have a long and prosperous life.
sixth birthday and I was really looking forward to hav- The Newar people believe that one needs to under-
ing a good time. When I heard the whispering sound, stand and respect oneself before they can understand
I knew that something was going on. I peeked into the others. This is the reason Mha Puja is celebrated.
other room and I saw my parents smiling at each oth- To complete Mha Puja, eight elements are needed. The
er. They wished me a Happy Birthday and said “There Mandala is the most important element of Mha Puja.
is a big surprise for you!” I asked them “What is it? The principle of Mha Puja is to worship the Mandala.
Please give it to me now.” Suddenly I heard a whimper. The Mandala is drawn for each member of the house
My parents started laughing. according to their age in front of them. Thus, the to-
There at the corner of the room, I saw a wrapped box. tal number of mandalas depends upon the number of
Suddenly a small puppy jumped out of the box. It was family members. There are three extra Mandalas for
so cute. It was a pug dog and it was chocolate brown in the god of the house, for Yamaraj (God of death) and
color. The puppy had wide black eyes and a small nose. Jamaraj (God of life). After the Mandala is prepared,
It was a male dog. He kept whimpering so I hugged every member of the family sits in front of the man-
him. My party was about to start in a few hours. So I dala and begins the puja. Then the eldest female of the
had to think of a name for him. family worships each member of the family.
Well, he was a pug dog so I named him “Pug- After the puja is over, the feast is served to
gy”. It suited him perfectly. Once I was all ready, I took every member of the house. The food served is ar-
some pictures with Puggy. I was so excited to show ranged in a way that resembles Mandala.The feast is
my new dog to my friends. One by one my friends known as Samay Baji. The Mandala has eight petals of
started arriving. They all said my dog was so cute and lotus and Samaya Baji has eight different dishes. After
started playing with him. The whole day we played the festival is over, all the members work together to
with puggy, running around here and there. We also clean the house.
played “Fetch” with him. My friends took lots of pic- At school, we learned about Mha Puja. We
tures with him. One of my friends tried giving him a made Mandala. We drew five circles in the middle and
piece of cake and he gulped it. We all started laughing. eight petals outside. We used the red and yellow colors
After lots of fun filled activities, the party finally end- mixed with rice flour to design our Mandala.Then we
ed. Puggy made the party extra fun for all of us. decorated it with flowers.
Puggy is the best gift I have received and al-
ways will be. Why? You may wonder. Because Puggy - Baibhavi Dhakal
always makes me smile. He always jumps and dances
around with me. He loves to play and have fun with
me. Puggy is like a best friend to me. He loves to give
me cuddles. Sometimes he is naughty but I still love
him. We do everything together. When I feel down
Puggy comes to me and licks me and that really lifts
me up. For all the reasons mentioned above, Puggy is
the best gift I ever received and I will always cherish
him. I wish to have so many more pets in the future.

- Arianna Tamrakar