Nahan (HP), Jan 10 (PTI) ‘Boda Tyohar’, the biggest annual month-long festival celebrated by the Hatti community in Himachal Pradsh’s Sirmaur district, commenced on Wednesday.
Members of the community, who reside in 154 panchayats of the area, offer a goat to their local deity as per traditions.
Earlier, the villagers used to sacrifice goats on ‘Bhatioj’ in the Sanjha Angan (common courtyard) where the temple of the local deity ‘Thari Devi’ is situated.
On this day, every household in the village cooks goat meat, says Neetu Chauhan, a researcher on the Hatti community customs.
In the evening, after having dinner all the villagers assemble and sing and dance to traditional music till morning.
During this night of Bhatioj, also called ‘Saje ki Raat’, special songs are sung during every ‘Prahar’ (three hours) of the night and ‘Chhada’ (a mixture of cow dung, urine, milk, ghee, curd and Ganga jal) is sprinkled on all the people present there, Chauhan said.
The festival also symbolises the importance of women in the Hatti community as the next morning, all the brothers visit their married sister’s houses to share ‘Saje ka Duna’ (a mixture of meat, jaggery and wheat flour).
During this month-long festival, married women visit their parental house to have their share of meat and take part in the celebrations.
On the eighth day of the festival, ‘Khoda’, the tradition of brotherhood begins. Villagers invite their friends and relatives for dinner at their resistance, Om Prakash, a social worker in Aanj Bhoj area told PTI.
Kundan Singh Shastri, general secretary of the Hatti Samiti, a principal organisation of the community, said this festival is full of love for traditions, brotherhood, and culture.
The state government on January 1 issued a notification granting Scheduled Tribe (ST) status to the Hatti community, however, barely three days after, the Himachal Pradesh High Court issued an interim order staying the notification. PTI COR BPL NB
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