Dhanya Lakshmi and the Granary

Yomari Punhi falls on the full moon after the rice is harvested and stored, and the worship of the day is addressed to the grain.

The festival is also called Dhanya Purnima, the full moon of grain, and yomari is offered as an image of Dhanya Lakshmi — the goddess of grain and abundance — rather than merely to her. In Newar households the bhakari, the woven grain store, is worshipped directly: offerings made at the container itself, thanking it for being full and asking that it stay that way.

In some households the offerings are made in shaped sets and left out overnight, and elaborate yomari arrangements are built as display offerings.

This is the oldest layer of the festival and the one that explains its date. A harvest festival held before the harvest is in would be a wish; held after, it is a receipt. The valley waits until the granary is shut and then celebrates the shutting of it.