This is the most popular festival in the valley which is celebrated in
the month of February in the houses of those who have been blessed with
a son in the past year. People gather in those houses and drink 'chhang'
wine. On a large platter, some cakes made of mixed flour are placed and
carried to the deity by four men. This place is marked by a tree or a
shrub or a little mound. A young unmarried girl dressed up in ceremonial
robes accompanies the platter and she carries a vessel of chhang wine
in her hands. She is followed by two men one carrying a lighted torch
and the other a bunch of pine branches bundled in sheepskin. The woman
who has borne her first son leads the procession of devotees which consists
of other mothers of sons. The sheepskin is suspended from the branches
of a tree and shot at with arrows. People drink chhang and beat drums
and dance. On their way home men and women throw snowballs at each other.
