Gaijatra, a traditional cultural festival of Nepal, is being celebrated across the country including the Kathmandu Valley.
The festival is celebrated annually for eight days, starting from Bhadra Krishna Pratipada to Ashtami, to honor the their loved ones who passed away in the previous year. In some families that have lost a loved one, a surviving member dresses as a cow and parades through the neighborhood as part of a traditional mourning ritual.
A religious belief has it that those departed souls will cross the River Vaitarani, a symbolic river of suffering, by clinging to the tail of a cow and reach the heaven.
The Gaijatra festival began during the reign of king Pratap Malla. According to historical accounts, the king initiated the festival to console his grieving wife after the death of their son. He commanded his subjects to celebrate in honor of their own loved ones who had passed away in the previous year, marking the origin of this tradition.
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