Nepal observes Udhauli and Yomari Punhi festivals today. The Nepal government announced a public holiday in the country today. The Yomari festival is a Newari harvest festival celebrated in the Kathmandu Valley during the full moon in December. It marks the end of the rice harvest season and is celebrated with family gatherings, feasting on a sweet dumpling called yomari, and worshiping Annapurna, the goddess of grains. The Yomari Punhi is believed to have started 400 years ago.
The yomari itself is a steamed, fig-shaped dumpling made from fresh rice flour dough, filled with jaggery and sesame seeds and condensed milk.
Meanwhile, people from the Kirant community are observing Udhauli festival today. This festival is observed wishing for a good harvest by worshipping the soil and nature. People from the Rai, Limbu, Sunuwar and Yakhya ethnicities observe this festival.
The President of Nepal Ramchandra Paudel has expressed his belief that the Udhauli festival would help strengthen national unity by fostering mutual harmony, tolerance and fraternity in the diverse Nepali society. President expressed the belief that Yamari Punhi and Jyapu Day would inspire positive initiatives on the path of social harmony, cultural pride and national unity.
In a similar message, Vice President Ram Sahay Prasad Yadav has said that every festival celebrated in the country provides an opportunity to recognize the country as a nation with unity in diversity, pride in tradition, and strength in coexistence.
