Indra Jatra · Yenya Festival The eight days of Yenya, the great Newar festival of Kathmandu, opened by raising the lingo, a tall pine pole, at Hanuman Dhoka.
The name
The same day, written in each of the six scripts this app keeps
- English
- Indra Jatra · Yenya
- हिन्दी
- इंद्र जात्रा
- नेपाली
- इन्द्रजात्रा · येँया
Only the names actually in use are listed. A blank script is not an omission: the day may simply not be kept there, or be kept under a different festival's name.
UTC+5:30
The date of a festival depends on the place: a tithi that ends at dusk in Chennai can still be running at dusk a thousand kilometres west, which moves the day. Sunrise and sunset here are computed for the place above.
When it falls next
Looking for the calendar this day belongs to
This day does not fall again in the next three years at this place. A few days are tied to the solar month rather than to the civil year, so a year can hold two of them or none.
What the day is
The eight days of Yenya, the great Newar festival of Kathmandu, opened by raising the lingo, a tall pine pole, at Hanuman Dhoka. Indra is said to have come down to the valley to take parijat flowers for his mother and to have been caught and tied up as a thief, and the images of the bound Indra are shown through the days. The Kumari, the living goddess, is drawn through the old city in her chariot with Ganesh and Bhairav beside her, the Lakhe and the Pulukisi elephant dance in the lanes, and rice beer runs from the mouth of the Sweta Bhairav mask.
- Deity
- Indra, Kumari, Bhairava
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
The hour
The rule in words
Bhadra Shukla Dwadashi at sunrise, when the lingo is raised; the days run on to the Ashwin Krishna Chaturthi, when the pole comes down.
The fast
No fast is kept. Samay baji, the Newar plate of beaten rice, buffalo, ginger and soy beans, is eaten, and the families that lost someone in the year walk the Upaku Wanegu route with lamps.
Where the regions differ
A Kathmandu valley festival; Patan and Bhaktapur keep their own jatras on other days. Nothing outside Nepal answers to it, though the Indra of the story is the Vedic one.
Every date here is computed from the Sun and Moon for the place entered, by the rule printed beside it. A printed panchangam can differ by a day where an almanac reads a tithi at a different instant, and a family's own custom always comes first. Where the practice genuinely varies, the text says so rather than choosing for you.