Bala Chaturdashi


According to the lunar calendar, the festival of Bala Chaturdashi usually falls on the 14th day after the full moon in the month of Nov-December of each year during which devotees pray for their deceased family members. The festival is also known as the “sat bij chharne din”  and as the name implies, is marked by offering seven varieties of holy grains, fruits and coins to the deities celebrating apocryphal legends of the time long gone by. On this particular occasion, pilgrims from all over Nepal throng at Pashupatinath temple earlier a night before the actual ceremony and prepare appropriate grounds in preparation for the following day at the Kailash hill, situated just north above the main Pashupatinath temple. As per the established custom devotees light traditional oil lamp and recite Vedic mantras while keeping themselves awake the whole night while the lamp keeps burning. In the morrow they take a holy dip in the sacred water of the Baghmati, pay obeisance to Pashupatinath or Gokarna temples and traverse the route prescribed for that occasion scattering 'a hundred variety of seeds' in Kailash forest of Pashupatinath so that their dead relations may reap the fruit of this merit in the next world.

Glance of Nepal