As part of their New Year celebrations, the Newar people of Nepal execute Mha: Puja, a yearly rite to purify and invigorate the soul. It is conducted on Nepal Sambat, the official lunar calendar of Nepal, on New Year’s Day, which falls during the Swanti festival. Mha: Puja means “worship of the self” in Newari, and it honors one’s inner soul. The event heralds an auspicious start to the New Year and bestows riches and longevity on all who take part. Mha: Puja and Nepal Sambat are also celebrated in Nepalese settlements around the world.
Mha: puja is traditionally celebrated with pomp and circumstance in the Newari community. There are several words in the Newari language that are made up of only one letter. The Newar community, in particular, performs Mha Puja at night. The Mha Puja is a ceremony for honoring one’s own existence and appreciating one’s own worth. The family members sit in a row, each with their own mandap, which is decked with flowers, sweets, garland, and lights. The family’s female member serves Sagun to the rest of the family, which consists of fried eggs, pastries, lentils, and rice-based local wine.
Mha refers to corporeal and conscious words; it is not used to refer to inanimate or unconscious objects. Today, the Newar culture celebrates Mha Puja to bring awareness to this consciousness and self-element. Worshiping this self-realizing self and Paramatma within one’s own body, one worships one’s own unparalleled body today in the Newar community. A gorgeous Mandap portraying Ashta Chiranjeevi and Ashta Aishwarya is worshipped in it, and one feeds oneself by placing various food items on the mandap, according to the notion that there can be no tranquility without peace in the body.
The Newar people used to celebrate Nhudanya Bhintuna (exchanging New Year‘s greetings) on the first day of the Nepal Sambat,
