Maa Ya Khwa Swoyagu: A Nepali Mother's Day

 Mother's Day is an important holiday in all the countries throughout the world. This Day is dedicated to honor dedication and sacrifice of mothers. This Day is a celebration honoring the mother and the motherhood, recognizing the role, strength and influence of a mother.

Even though we celebrate Mother's Day and Father's Day in the United States, these Days are totally different in terms of dates, days and cultural value and traditions comparing to Maa Ya Khwa Swayagu and Baa Ya Khwa Swayagu traditions in Nepal. Here in America, we the people from Nepal get to celebrate Nepalese Mother's Day and Nepalese Father's Day as well as American Mother's Day and American Father's Day.

 

Among many festivals, Maa Ya Khwa Swoyagu (Day for looking at mother's face -- Mother's Day) is also one of the important festivals of Nepal. This Day which is celebrated in Nepal on the day of  Baisakha Krishna Aunsi, also known as Mata Tirtha Aunsi which falls on the new moon of the Baisakha Month according to Lunar Calendar. Maa Ya Khwa Swayagu festival is a testimony to the honor and respect the sons and daughters offer to their mothers.

Beauty of Nepal lies in the fact that Nepal, though a small country, is a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic and multi-lingual country having more than 70 ethnic communities all of whom have their own festivals, culture, traditions and languages. Nepalese Mother's Day is celebrated by different ethnic communities in their own ways.

The folklore has it that once upon a time some children went to a Kunda (pond) and one of the children saw his deceased mother on the Kunda. The Kunda is known as Mata Tirtha Kunda. From then on, it has been a tradition for folks - whose mother is deceased - to go to Mata Tirtha Kunda to take a look of mother in water, to take a dive into water, to offer Nisalaa or Sidha Daan and offer Shraddh rituals.

The streets of Kathmandu look a little bit different on the day of Mother's Day. On this day, the narrow streets of Kathmandu are full of extended sweet meat shops. Home-cooked delicacies, sweets, cakes, cookies and other delicious foods are offered to the mothers by daughters and sons. Married daughters are seen going to their mother's home  with goodies and sweet meats. 

Speaking of Mother's Day in America, it was Anna Jarvis who initiated the Mother's Day in USA in the early 20th century. In 1908, the first formal Mother's Day service was held at a Methodist church in Grafton, West Virginia, to pay tribute to Jarvis's late mother. In 1914, president Woodrow Wilson officially signed a decree proclaiming Mother's Day as a national holiday.