Tuesday, March 19, 2024
Himachal Pradesh

Fairs and Festivals

Festivals

Gotsi or Gochi

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.