Yomarhi Punhi

Yomarhi Punhi, on the full moon day of December, is a very old celebration originating no doubt with Newar farmers. Today it is observed in almost every home in the valley by both city and rural dwellers as a time when the heavy labor of rice harvest is over, the storage bins are full, the crisp nights are bright with moonlight, and all men's minds turn once more to pleasure. Indispensable to the many ceremonies and festivals of this agrarian valley people is food: food to offer to the gods and food for the great family and community feasts. To Newars - who speak the dialect of their ancestors as well as the official Nepali language - fig isyo, and bread is married; hence yomarhi, a sweet- meat as traditional to Yomarhi full moon as plum pudding is to Christmas. This fist-size confection of rice flour dough is molded to resemble a fig fruit, filled with molasses-like brown sugar and sesame seed, and steamed over the opening of a chulo, the Nepalese cooking stove. Nepalese housewives pride themselves on the dexterity with which they manipulate this pastry, creating, besides the fig, amazing likenesses of animals, fruits, nuts, ceremonial lamp stands, together with figurines of Ganesh, the good-luck god, and Laxmi, the Goddess of Wealth.

All Newars in the valley, regardless of their station in life, observe Yomarhi Punhi or full moon, for all Newars are farmers at heart, each clinging to a small piece of ancestral land from which he collects a share of harvest. An aging widow's fourth-acre plot is bequeathed to her by parents as marriage dowry; a poor priest tills his meager share of old family holdings; craftsmen, government servants, teachers, bankers and merchants are all landlords of at least a few acres once farmed by their great-great-grand-fathers. Larger acreage are owned by the ancient Newar guthis, social organizations based on caste, kin and religion of the members and their ancestors. Each member earns a small share of the harvest by cultivating the land in rotation, or having a tenant till it for him on behalf of the guthi society, whose main purpose and profit is to maintain the group's guardian or patron deities, their temples, festivals and related community feasts. Thus sundown on harvest full moon finds every family gathered together as the housewife places a small selection of yomarhi cakes in a bucket, including two rice-dough figurines of a peasant farmer and wife. A simple religious ceremony blesses the cakes and gives thanks to the gods for the harvest. Now the bucket of sweetmeats is placed amidst the heaps of unhusked rice in the family storage room to be left 'hidden' for a four-day period. Women are strictly forbidden to look upon the consecrated cakes or grain during this time, and nothing will induce farmers to unlock the bins, not even a vastly profitable offer of purchase, for it is generally believed that some miracle may cause this unseen rice store to multiply in the bins, a long-standing dream of Nepalese people.

At night, when the yomarhi cakes are securely locked away, the traditional family feast is celebrated, when they all sit in long rows about the room where the surplus cakes are eaten. Four days later, when the bucket is removed from the granary, the cakes are distributed and consumed by family members. Only with the completion of these ceremonies do city landlords expect their share of the harvest.

Festivities break out all over the valley during the harvest full moon. The tiny village of Thecho, four miles south of Kathmandu, long famous as the home of one of the finest Newar dance troupes, stages spectacular performances where people come from miles around to watch the well-trained, ornately-costumed dancers and musicians. Their most lavish performance is held the day before full moon, when the proud troupe dances all afternoon to commemorate the harvest's completion.

RICE CAKES FOR THE HARVEST MOON

Non-Newars call this full moon day Dhanya Punima, dhan meaning either wealth or unhusked rice, synonymous terms in Nepal. These Parbate people, as Newars call all non-Newars, will not use the new crop of rice for food until it has been blessed in the store-room on this full moon day. Many place yomarhi cakes in their treasure boxes with cash and valuables, praying to the Goddess of Wealth for continued and multiplying prosperity. Hundreds go to Lord Shiva's shrine in Panauti village near Banepa, where this deity is called Dhaneswar Mahadev, signifying his relationship with wealth and rice. Devotees present him with offerings and yomarhi cakes, receiving in return his blessing for prosperity. This gift from the deity, or prasad, may be a smearing of red paste transferred from the idol to the devotee's forehead by the temple priest, or a taste of the food and drink which others have offered to Shiva.

It was during this festival in 1969 that an entire family of eight, members of the priestly caste, lost consciousness soon after consuming a little prasad which had been left by a middle-aged woman. All were hospitalized and eventually recovered, but it was whispered that perhaps the woman was a witch, afflicted with the 'evil eye', who had laced her offerings with some magic ingredient or drug. Others say it was simple food-poisoning, a logical deduction considering the distance people carry their food offerings and the unsanitary mixture which results when they are strewn about the idol. A legend relating to the harvest full moon tells of Kuber, one of the Gods of Wealth, who disguised himself as a beggar and appeared at the door of a wealthy merchant in Panauti village.

Completely unaware that the god was testing his character, the merchant, with unfailing Nepalese hospitality, invited the stranger in, offering refreshments and yomarhi cakes. This so pleased Kuber that he revealed his true identity to the merchant and presented him in turn with gifts of figs. Thereafter, the fig-shaped yomarhi-became the traditional food of harvest full moon, when every housewife makes an extra supply for distribution to neighbors.

YOMARHI PUNHI OR DHANYA PURNIMA

Children look forward to the evening of the yomarhi full moon as Western children anticipate Halloween, a time when they troop from house to house mischievously demanding yomarhi cakes. The traditional song, however, which these candid urchins sing, would no doubt startle Western housewives:

'The fig (yomarhi) has a tip,
It is dark within.

It will taste sweet if you give;
If not, it is tasteless.

She is young who gives,
She is a miserly old hag who does not.

If you do not hurry and present us with yomarhi,
We will relieve ourselves in your rice-grinding machine.'