Kalash Festival

The Kalash has three colorful festivals. Kalash, these festivals are the culminations of religious life, and, like the big funerals, they unite the people.

CHILMJUSHT (14^th -15^th  May)                                                                                                                            

CHILIMJUSHI THE SPRING FESTIVAL, in the middle of May, lasts for four days. The spring festival honors the fairies and safeguards the goats and shepherds before they go to the pastures. Before the festival, the women and girls gather from all over the valley and decorate their houses. Inside the houses, local wine and milk products are shared. The women then sprinkle milk on Goddess” Jestak,” the protector of their children and home. The festival begins at Rumbur, where the Shaman (soothsayer) and tribal chiefs lead a procession to the” Malosh altar” high above Grum to sacrifice goats to the Gods. Later, the festival moved to Bumboret and ended up at Birir a few days later.

Every religious ceremony is accompanied by dancing and a rhythmical chant to the beat of the drum. The women wearing traditional black robes, ornate cowries, shelled headdresses, and adorned with colored necklaces dance in a circle. Then the men join in: it may be a man and woman or a man in the middle with women on each side, lovers being free to intermingle. One hand is held around the waist of the partner and the other around the shoulders. Tribal chiefs in colorful dresses narrate stories of bygone days and events.

UCHAO O UTCHAL (19th – 20th August)                                                                                                                      

UCHAL FESTIVAL, in August, marks the harvest of wheat and barley and the bringing down of cheese from the high summer pastures. It is celebrated in Rumbur and Bumboret. It started as the” Ranat,” earlier in July, with dances performed on alternate days by young girls and boys to safeguard the maize crop.

CHOIMUSK (7th to 22nd December)                                                                                                                            

CHOMOS FESTIVAL. As winter starts around mid-December, the Chomos festival begins. The festival is observed for the divine, the living and dead relatives, for the crops and the goats to be safeguarded, while the community, the village, and the valley are purified before the coming year. Sighting a fox is a good omen, and great efforts are made. At dusk, torch-lit processions are led from all the nearby villages, culminating at the “Charsue,” the central customary dancing place. Most of the festivities are indoors, where the local wine is handed around as the dance gathers momentum until late in the night around the bonfire. At the same time, the tribal elders sit on hilltops at dawn to watch the rising sun and declare the New Year. Goat sacrifices are then made to the Goddess “Jastak”; blood from the animal is sprinkled at the temple Jastak An. This is when “Balimine,” another great God, visits the Kalash valley once a year, and sacrifices are made at his” Malosh. Altar,” too.

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