Nagpanchami

You probably have noticed most of the Nepalese house contained posters of snakes high up their main door. These posters are not meant for decorating the house but have more of religious values. All those posters are posted in a festival named Nagpanchami.

Today Nepal is celebrating Nagpanchami. Nag means snake and snakes have special role in the Hindu Mythology. Therefore this is the day when Nepalese worship snakes by posting posters of snakes high up in the main door with cow dung offering milk, cotton garland, cow milk, lava, barely, sesame and nuts. It is believed that if Nag Panchami is rightly celebrated every year, Nags bless us with good health and wealth.

There are different mythology about the Nagpanchami and its celebration. Some of them are as follows:

• Mahabharata tells that Lord Krishna conquered Nag Kalia and put an end to his evil deeds on the day of Shrawan Panchami.
• Kathmandu was a big lake; people destroyed the lake for making it liveable. Nags were angry because Lake was no more there. Hence people started celebrating Nag Panchami to protect them from Nag’s anger.