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Festival Greetings

Janai Purnima wishes

On the full moon of Shrawan almost everybody in Nepal ends the day with a thread around their wrist. That thread is what a Janai Purnima wish is about.

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What a Janai Purnima wish is about

Two threads, and they are not the same. The janai is the sacred cord a man who wears one renews that morning. The doro is tied on everybody else — by a priest, a family member, whoever gets to you first — and it stays on until Laxmi Puja months later, when it goes onto a cow's tail. Newar households call the day Kwati Punhi and eat kwati, a soup of nine sprouted beans. Rakhi is in there too, and in Nepal it is the smaller half of the day. All of which makes this the most horizontal festival here: the doro goes on friends, colleagues and neighbours as readily as on family, so the wish travels sideways rather than down a generation. If you are away, the line that works is the one that names the thread you could not tie.

Read the full account of the festival on Janai Purnima, next on August 20, 2027.

Janai Purnima wishes to send

2 wishes · नेपाली · नेवाः · English

Every line below is copyable — take one and send it however you like. Anyone whose wrist you would have tied a doro on — family, friends, colleagues, neighbours.

  • 01

    नाडीमा बाँधिएको डोरोले वर्षभरि तपाईंको रक्षा गरोस्।

    नेपाली

    May the doro on your wrist keep you safe all year.

    English

  • 02

    क्वाँटीको न्यानो र श्रावण पूर्णिमाको उज्यालो तपाईंको घरमा रहोस्।

    नेपाली

    गुँ:पुन्हिःया भिंतुना! 🥣🙏

    नेवाः

    The warmth of kwati and the light of the Shrawan full moon on your house.

    English

Wishes for other festivals

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