Today, eat curd and chiura as a feast to celebrate the completion of sowing. The government has also been celebrating Paddy Day on this day. Traditionally, Nepali society has been practicing the practice of eating curd and chiura on Asar 15.
Farmers who are tired from the hustle and bustle of work eat curd to gain strength. It is believed that curd and chiura cool the body at this time and store strength.
But why is curd and chiura eaten on Asar 15? Most people have the same answer, that is because they have been eating it since before. After all, why does Asar 15 have cultural significance? According to cultural workers, curd and chiura are eaten in Asar to celebrate the completion of sowing on time. This practice has been going on since ancient times. But cultural workers argue that time has brought it to Asar 15.
However, now you don’t have to wait until Asar 15 to eat curd and chiura. Currently, curd and chiura are available in the market for 12 months.
Earlier, not everyone had the ability to eat nutritious food like fish and meat like today. Farmers who were tired of planting did not even have the time to cook fish and meat. Most farmers used to have cows and buffaloes in their homes. Due to the milk provided by cows and buffaloes, there was always yogurt, mahi and ghee in every household. Similarly, since they were farmers, yogurt also came to be made at home.
Therefore, cultural workers explain that it is customary to feast on the joy of the completion of the planting in Asad by giving importance to yogurt yogurt at home. Yogurt yogurt also became a nutritious food. Yogurt yogurt does not have to be cooked like other foods, which takes a long time. Therefore, its use gained importance.
Asad 15 is also considered a festival of eating yogurt yogurt in Nepali society. Apart from farmers, Nepalis engaged in other professions and businesses also celebrate Asad 15 by eating yogurt yogurt today.
Yogurt has an important place in our culture. Before leaving home for auspicious work, going abroad, etc., there is a tradition of applying red tika on the forehead with dahi akshata. Before leaving for such auspicious work, dahi is also given as a sign of good omen and bid farewell. It is believed that if you eat dahi while leaving, you will be blessed with good luck.
Dahi is also considered to be a health-promoting medicine from a scientific point of view. Guru Gorakhnath is said to have predicted that Prithvi Narayan Shah, the unifier of Nepal, would become powerful by giving him dahi. In Ayurveda, it is said that if you drink mohi made by mixing dahi at the end of a meal, you will not have to go to a health worker for medical treatment. A sentence like ‘Bhojanante pibet takram vaidyasya kin prajayam’ is also mentioned in Ayurveda. Dahi also increases digestion.
Eating dahi chiura when suffering from diarrhea acts as a medicine. Therefore, the tradition of eating dahi chiura has become widespread in Nepali culture. Thus, Asad 15 has succeeded in becoming a national cultural festival in Nepali society.
National Rice Day
The National Rice Day was celebrated from Asad 15, 2062 BS by a ministerial decision on Mangsir 29, 2061 BS. Being an agricultural country, most of the people of Nepal are engaged in farming.
Farmers are busy farming this month to earn food for the year. On this day, rice is sown in the hidden mud while singing folk songs in the Asare dialect. People also have fun in the fields by singing folk songs like ‘Chupu ra chupu hiloma padhy roper chodaula, bani kulo lagi pani aere godaula’.
During this mid-summer season, young men and women enjoy themselves by splashing mud on the fields with their hands. There is also a belief in Nepali society that one should enter the mud once in Asad.
