Today, Tharu community is celebrating Magha 1st as Maghi festival and New Year. This morning they are celebrating Maghi festival by bathing, donating, eating and having fun.
The new year of Tharu community i.e. Maghi festival is celebrated on 1st of January, the day the Sun enters Uttarayana. This festival is also given different names depending on the place. This festival is celebrated in the Terai region with great fanfare for five days from January 1. The Tharu community living in other places including the capital are also celebrating this festival in a special way today. In the Tharu community, it is a tradition to go to the reservoir early in the morning to take a bath, worship, and go to the village to seek blessings.
Today in the evening, they wake up the house by lighting big mudha. Households and guests sit and eat around the Dhuni. From this day for five days, everyone feels that they are free.
Sesame bath, rubbing sesame oil, giving sesame water to ancestors, offering sesame, donating sesame, and eating sesame are believed to be successful in this community. Rubbing sesame oil is believed to increase body temperature and reduce cold.
Today it is customary to choose the head of the village together. On the occasion of this festival, all the titles of Mahto, Guruba, Pujari, Dhami, Jhankri, Chowkidar, Kamaiya, Hali, Gothalo, householders are elected through democratic method.
In many places, on the day of Maghi, by mutual agreement, they choose a position to work with the headman for a year. Where there is no consensus, elections are held. In the Tharu caste, the agreement made on this day is irrevocable for one year. This custom is called 'Maghi Dewani'. In the Tharu community, it is customary not to see Sait during Maghi for marriage, travel, migration.
