Nepal’s Tharu community celebrates Gurahi festival

The Tharu community is celebrating its important cultural festival Gurahi today with great excitement, especially in districts like Kailali and Kanchanpur in western Nepal.

This festival is celebrated every year on Shrawan Shukla Panchami, the same day as Nag Panchami. While most Nepalis worship snakes on this day, the Tharu community performs a special Gurahi Puja instead.

Why is Gurahi celebrated?

According to tradition, Gurahi worship helps protect homes from snakes, lightning, fires, diseases, and bad spirits. The festival is especially connected to children, though people of all ages now take part.

The name “Gurahi” comes from a type of insect that eats mosquitoes and harmful germs. The Tharu community honors this insect by creating cloth-made butterflies (Gurahi) to represent it.

How is Gurahi celebrated?

Before the festival, houses and courtyards are cleaned and decorated. On the day of Gurahi, people bathe early in the morning to purify themselves. Women prepare colorful cloth butterflies, while boys make sticks (lathi) using bamboo or jute to “beat” the symbolic insects.

In the evening, villagers—especially children and young girls—gather in the village square dressed in new clothes. They bring flattened rice, corn, chickpeas, and the cloth Gurahi dolls in baskets.

The village elder (Bhalmansa) starts the ritual by tying sacred grass (dubo). Then, the girls place their Gurahi in one place for the worship. After the prayer, the brothers are asked to beat the Gurahi dolls with sticks, which symbolizes chasing away evil.

As this happens, people chant “Deu ghughuri, leu ghughuri”, and the fun-filled moment is known as “Gurahi Asarena.”

After the ritual, the girls distribute the food items they brought as prasad (holy offerings) to everyone. Finally, the symbolic Gurahi dolls are taken to rivers or canals for a farewell ritual, which represents washing away illnesses and bad luck.

Some families also hang small pieces of cloth at their doorways, believing it will drive away hardships, pain, and dangerous creatures like snakes and scorpions.

Community celebrations and public holiday

In places like Ghodaghodi Municipality, cultural programs and traditional dances are being held to mark the occasion. Local governments in Kailali have even announced a public holiday to honor the Gurahi festival.

The festival is a vibrant display of Tharu culture, unity, and spiritual belief in protecting the community from harm.