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Festivals of Nepal and use of botanicals

by Asmita Bhusal | 16-07-2020 21:04 recommendations 0

Hello everyone.
Hope everyone is safe out there.
Today is Shrawan 1 of 2077 B.S., first day of Shrawan month according to Nepali date. This day is also known as "Shrawan Sankranti" or "Karkat Sankranti" and most commonly known as "Luto (Scabies) falne diin" in Nepali, which has a great purpose towards human health and promoting use of botanicals for skin problems. 
Shrawan is a month of rainy season after Ashadh. As Ashadh is the month when most of Nepalese are busy on transplanting young seedlings of their major staple food crop, i.e. rice, farmers have to play in mud, soak in heavy rains on farm or maybe get scorched in day sunlight, all for completing this task and ensuring rice in their plates for whole year. This exposure to mud, dirty water and sun burn can result a lot of skin problems like skin allergies, rashes, scabies, abscess and wounds to farmers, especially to young children. 
This day or you can say festival is being celebrated for the day of smearing botanicals of medicinal values which were/are believed to cure such skin problems. Also, people throw burning fire wood shouting against a demon to go away which they believe to trouble small children and take away scabies also along with it. There are many such botanicals which have been believed and also being used since our past in Nepalese culture, such as; Titepati (Mugwort), Kukurdino (Smilax ovalifolia), tiuri (Impatients balsamina), sisnu (Urtica dioecea), Kurilo (Asparagus), etc.
But, nowadays, majority of nepalese, have started to follow Indian culture of wearing green and yellow bangles in their hand, smear mehendi (henna) in their hands (ladies and women do this) and visit temples and pilgrimage sites of Lord Shiva, this process is also known as "Bolbam", which is an Indian culture that entered Nepal about just 2 decades ago. Before this, people use to smear botanicals like tiuri  and  colocasia leaves (for color like that of henna), that I mentioned earlier, in their hands instead of this imported henna packets and bangles, this import is worth of more than 2 billion each year. 
Aren't we ignoring or perhaps many of us are unknown about such valuable botanicals and their importance in human health! 
Green cheers!!
Source of image: green gear

Mehendi and green and yellow bangles

no image

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7 Comments

  • Asmita Gaire says :
    Greetings ASMITA
    I hope you are doing well
    Lovely
    Thank you so much for this report
    Keep writing
    Green cheers
    Regards
    Asmita Gaire
    Posted 29-09-2020 23:49

  • Pooja Gyawali says :
    Beautifully written and proud of our culture.
    Thank you for sharing!!
    Posted 19-07-2020 18:38

  • NsikakAbasi Etim Jnr says :
    Hello Asmita,
    Your report is interesting and informative. Thanks for sharing.
    Posted 18-07-2020 07:48

  • sandesh thapa says :
    Hello Asmita,

    Go green Go shrawan.
    Thanks for sharing
    Regards,
    Sandesh
    Posted 17-07-2020 20:43

Sonika Pariyar

  • Sonika Pariyar says :
    Hello Asmita!

    I hope you are fine and doing great!

    We have different culture and tradition which we should be proud of .Use of different plants in our different culture is the one thing I love about our culture.

    Thanks for sharing!

    GREEN CHEERS!

    Regards,
    Sonika
    Posted 17-07-2020 00:31

  • ALOK DHAKAL says :
    Thats nice.
    Thanks for this report
    Keep writing!!!
    Posted 16-07-2020 21:57

  • Susma Thapa says :
    Hello,
    I hope you are fine and doing well,
    I really enjoyed reading your report,
    And yes,we all are ignoring our own tradition,
    But it's never too late to start any good work,
    let's awake up and let's try to preserve our own tradition with our own natural's products.
    Keep going, keep shining,
    Regards,
    Susma
    Posted 16-07-2020 21:16

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