Page 43 - Cornice_Grade 4

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