Ghatasthapna
Ghatasthapna
(From The Himalayan Times)
People have already started making the rounds of the markets to buy clothes, food-stuff and puja materials in preparation for the upcoming festival. Houses have already been cleaned, decorated and painted for Dashain. Dashain commences with Ghatasthapna…On this day, a priest or the head of the house places a kalasha - a sacred jar of holy water - in the prayer room where daily religious ceremonies are performed or in a purified area of the house pleading to Goddess Durga to bless the vessel with her presence.
The outside of the kalasha is decorated with designs made with cow dung. The dung is embedded with barley seeds. The placement of kalasha must be performed at a certain auspicious moment determined by astrologers. The kalasha, symbolic of Goddess Durga, is worshipped throughout Dashain.
In the soil specially prepared by mixing sand from a holy river ( Bagmati in Kathmandu ), barley seeds are planted on this day and shielded from light. By the tenth day, the seeds sprout. Elders put tika and give this sacred yellow jamara or barley sprouts on Vijaya Dashmi.
Ghatasthapna this year was on October 4th , 2005 and the auspicious hour was 9:51 am
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