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The Limbu Rai, Yakkha and Sunuwar communities of the Kirat community are celebrating the New Year today. The Limbu people call the New Year 'Yele Tangwe', the Kirat New Year is celebrated by the Limbu community as Kusang Yele Tangbe and the Rai community as Yele Dang.
The new year of this community begins on Maghe Sankranti. As Samvat changes in the Kirati calendar along with Maghe Sankranti, the Limbu community who traveled from Eastern Nepal to foreign countries celebrated the Kirati New Year with great pomp on the 1st of January. According to the Kirati calendar, Kirat Samvat 5085 has started from January 1 of this year.
Makar Sankranti, the festival of diversity, and Kirat New Year begins with the Maghi festival. Similarly, Yakkha and Sunuwar community members also celebrate the 1st of January as the beginning of the new year.
Kirat Samvat is 3 thousand 4 years older than Vikram Samvat currently in use in Nepal. History researcher and researcher Lakshman Lavati says that it is a legend that it started to be celebrated after the beginning of the reign of King Yalambara of Tangwe Samvat Kirati.
In this season, from Sankranti, the flowers of Champa species found in high mountain areas start to bloom. That is why the Limbu community calls Maghe Sankranti as Kakphewa Tangnam.
In Limbu language, Kak means spring, Phewa means flowering and the name Tang means weather, i.e. the name Kakfewa Tang means the season of spring flowering. Lavati says that during this festival, senior members of the family or guardians burn forest yams and give blessings to the members.
On the day of Makar Sankanti, various programs are organized in the districts of Panchthar, Tehrathum, Taplejung, Ilam, Jhapa, Dhankuta and others where Kiratis are in majority.
This festival has been started in Kathmandu, Lalitpur, Hong Kong and Singapore, where the Kirat Limbus live densely. Just as the Limbus say Yele Tangwe, this festival is considered as Maghya by the Magars, Yele Dang by the Rai, Maghi by the Tharus and Makar Sankranti by the Hindus. Even so, senior citizens say that Maghe i.e. Makar Sankranti is considered as a common and original festival of Nepalese people.
