Hindu Nepali women celebrate a huge festival—one of the biggest occasions in Nepal—known as teej. It takes place on the third day of Shuklapaksha in Bhadra (normally in August or early September). The mythical explanation of teej purports that Hamalay’s daughter Goddess Parvati went through a rigorous fasting for 108 years known as hari talika teej with the desire to have Lord Shiva as her husband. Having witnessed the willingness of the Goddess to be with him, Lord Shiva accepted her as his wife. Goddess Parvati’s spirit, devotion, and strong intention generally compose the story upon which teej festival is grounded. Inevitably, Nepalese women have come to see teej as a venue for them to show their devotion to their significant other. If unmarried, they celebrate teej as a symbolic prayer to someday have a good husband.\n\nIn a highly male-dominated society such as that of Nepal, this kind of festival rings the idea of female subjugation and puts women empowerment in question. Does teej, a Nepali heritage as it is, survive a misogynistic culture? How do women (re)create themselves in a festival created by men for men? To put these inquires in context, it should be noted that Nepali women have historically been regarded as inferior objects. In the old days, if married, women would not be allowed to visit their hometown; they would not be given easy access to basic needs of living such as communication and transportation. teej is, again, a festival created by men symbolically for men, but it also is, and absolutely a venue for women. Nepali women use this opportunity to be with others to share their sorrow, happiness, and other deep emotions in togetherness. It has been reported that women use Teej as an assembly to collect funds for women-centered causes, taking advantage of the big occasion to raise development issues.\n\nteej remains as an important festival in Nepal, a surviving cultural vein of the South Asian nation. It honors Nepalese folk life, folk songs, and ancient Nepali music. Wearing red attire with fancy ornaments, participating in singing, dancing, and eating dar (a particular food in Teej) are the main activities in the festival. These days, both women and men observe the festival, recognizing its cultural value\n\nPhoto : CONTRIBUTED BY ANIL GANDHARBA

The Auckland Tamaki Herenga Waka Festival will be held on Auckland’s waterfront and harbor over the Auckland Anniversary Weekend, 27 to 29 January 2018. Traditionally, with Auckland being home to more than 180 ethnicities, the region has featured various types of Maori presence including Maori waka (canoes) during the weekend. And in the recent years, this tradition has been celebrated as a festival, a result from collaboration among the Mana Whenua; nineteen iwi (tribal groups) authorities of Tamaki Makaurau; the Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development (ATEED) on behalf of the Auckland Council.\n\nThroughout the three-day festival, many activities related to traditional and contemporary Maori culture will be featured. The activities are designed to boost harmonious understanding of the Maori culture to both children and adults by blending traditional and modern elements.\n\nThe program consists of music, games and craft activities, storytelling, and waka parades and rides. Sunday, 28 January, is the peak of the festival, hosting an array of waka activities such as waka paddling and a waka carving demonstration. On the same day, participants can visit village workshops to experience traditional arts and craft like toi (Maori arts), weaving, and carving. At the ANZ Viaduct events center, several art exhibitions will take place. There will also be a booth of modern digital games in the venue. Next to the Viaduct basin, people can experience waka sailing throughout the festival.\n\nThe festival has become a host of celebrated events during the Auckland Anniversary Weekend in just a short period of time. The 2018 Auckland Tamaki Herenga Waka Festival program is expected to be enjoyed by the locals and tourists, marking a scene to celebrate Maori history and heritage as well as the contemporary culture of Tamaki Makaurau.\n\nAdmission is free; however, partial payments may be collected in some tour zones and market places for food or souvenirs. The festival’s full program is available here.\n\nPhoto : Youth experiencing waka culture © Auckland Tamaki Herenga Waka Festival

When the festive activities of Lunar July ends, it is the beginning of “Tết Trung thu” (or “the Mid-Autumn festival”). It usually falls out on the 15th day of Lunar August when the weather turns a little cooler after the unpleasantly hot summer. In Vietnam, this event has many humanistic meanings such as: regarding as “family union holiday”, thanksgiving to the nature Gods for the harvest and growth of life, praying to ask the blessings for families and relatives. As time went by, it is known as the Children’s festival because of its pureness and closeness to the natural world. Moreover, watching the moon’s color on that day can predict the harvest as well as the national destiny: namely, the successful silk-making season (golden moon), natural disasters (blue moon), peaceful country (orange moon).\n\nAlthough the origin of “Tết Trung thu” is not really clear, Vietnamese people still practice it as an intangible cultural heritage (ICH) belonging to ancient wet-rice civilization. There have been several folktales about it: the story of Hằng Nga (Moon Lady), the legend about the woodcutter named Cuội, the tale of the king went to visit the moon, ect. And the oral tradition of Cuội was the most popular story and it reflects the Vietnamese folk identity. It is said that Cuội’s absent-minded wife poured dirty water on a magic tree which caused it to fly towards the moon. He failed to pull the tree back and stuck with it on the moon. Therefore, children often carry colorful lanterns on the full moon night of Lunar August to help him find the way back to Earth.\n\nVietnamese people spend whole a month preparing for the celebration. Some outstanding customs indispensable on the brightest moon night include:\n\n– Worshiping the natural Gods: This practice demonstrates knowledge concerning nature and the universe of indigenous people. The mid-autumn day is the occasion to show their respect to the natural Gods and ancestors. Besides, the worshiping tray with five kind of fruits (representing the universe’s five elements), moon-cakes with many unique shapes including two main types: “bánh dẻo” (symbol of reunion) and “bánh nướng” (meaning of life’s taste), toys which expressed the desire for a good harvest year, a happy and reunited family.\n\n– Enjoying traditional mid-autumn specialities: After the full moon rises, when the Gods and ancestors have received the devotion of living people, it will be time for everyone to enjoy the fruits and cakes together. It can be said that gathering in the moonlight is a traditional practice and also a rare time of year for everybody to gather and show the connection between family members.\n\n– Carrying lanterns: For Vietnamese children, the traditional lantern is the most meaningful gift to parade in the Mid-Autumn festival. The making lantern is considered as one of the famous traditional craftsmanship of agricultural residents as well. Traditional lanterns are made from bamboo and cellophane, going through many stages. There are many lantern shapes designed with folk symbolic meanings: the star lantern shows the purity of children, the rabbit lantern represents the moon, the toad lantern describes a desire about favorable weather for crops, the carp lantern stand for wishing peace and prosperity, ect.\n\n– Performing the unicorn dance: This performance art originated from the folk legend about the unicorn. Legendarily, unicorn was very aggressive and often caused trouble for human. Then “ông Địa” (the character incarnated by Maitreya Buddha) appeared and tamed it into a sacred animal to bless everyone in annual Mid-Autumn festival. Hence, the simulation of “ông Địa” hanging out with his unicorn among the children’s lantern lights is an unforgettable image in this festival.\n\nIn general, “Tết Trung thu” in Vietnam retains positive traditional elements in the modern time. It still has attracted the younger generation and directed them to the values of truth – goodness – beauty which are inherent to the festival. As an element that covers most of the specific domains of ICH, Vietnam’s Mid-Autumn festival has its own identity despite the great impact of globalization in its culture and the recent transformation of customs.\n\nPhoto : The worshiping tray with an identity of agricultural residents © Hoang The Phuc

Kampong Gelam is an historical precinct that was originally conceived by Sir. Stamford Raffles to be a settlement area for the Malay, Arab, and Bugis communities in Singapore. In 1989, the core area of Kampong Gelam was gazetted for conservation by the Urban Redevelopment Authority. Today, the historical precinct continues to retain a strong Malay and Muslim identity with both traditional and modern trades attracting locals and foreign tourists alike.\n\nLocated at the heart of Kampong Gelam is the Malay Heritage Centre, a heritage institution managed by the National Heritage Board. The center serves as a showcase of Malay heritage and culture in Singapore, as a focal point for the Malay community in Singapore and a place-maker for the historical precinct. It also presents exhibitions and programs that showcase the intangible cultural heritage (ICH) of the various sub-communities within the wider Malay community.\n\nIn 2011, the Malay Heritage Centre conceptualized and introduced its signature program known as Neighbourhood Sketches. Neighbourhood Sketches is a series of regular outdoor performances held within Kampong Gelam. The program brings the rich and diverse ICH art forms of the Malay community closer to the public through regular street performances outside the walls of the center.\n\nSince the introduction of the program in 2011, the Malay Heritage Centre has presented a total of 126 performances that have attracted more than 23,000 participants. The different types of ICH art forms showcased in these performances included Wayang Kulit (shadow puppet theater), Dondang Sayang (performance involving the exchange of Malay quatrains set to music), Angklung (ensemble performance using instruments made from bamboo), Gamelan Melayu (ensemble performance using predominantly percussive instruments), Dikir Barat (Malay choral singing), Silat (Malay martial arts), and Kuda-Kepang (Javanese horse dance).\n\nWhen curating performances for Neighbourhood Sketches, the Malay Heritage Centre makes a conscious effort to showcase a broad range of ICH art forms practiced by and associated with the Malay community. In addition to staging performances, the center ensures that key characteristics of each art form are shared with the audience during every performance and, where applicable, interactive segments involving audience participation are also included.\n\nIn addition, the Malay Heritage Centre records performances staged as part of Neighbourhood Sketches as a means of documenting the ICH art forms presented. The centre also leverages on technology to promote the performances to raise public awareness and uses social media platforms such as Facebook Live to broadcast these performances so that they are able to reach out to a wider audience.\n\nThus far, Neighbourhood Sketches has received an overwhelmingly positive response, and the majority of the audience members surveyed requested more performances as well as certain other ICH art forms to be presented. In addition, 95 percent of the audience members agreed that watching the performances contributed to a better understanding and appreciation of Malay arts, culture, and heritage.\n\nIt is worth noting that the ICH practitioners who participated in Neighbourhood Sketches have also enjoyed being part of the program. In fact, many of these ICH practitioners were grateful for the opportunity to showcase their craft to a wider audience and informed the Malay Heritage Centre that they felt a stronger sense of pride as ICH bearers after participating.\n\nBesides showcasing the cultural expressions, practices, and art forms of the Malay community, the performances of Neighbourhood Sketches also serve to educate and entertain visitors to Kampong Gelam. In doing so, they contribute to the overall cultural vibrancy of the historical precinct by activating its streets by presenting performances that are engaging and reflective and respectful of the precinct’s identity, culture, and heritage.\n\nPhoto : Wayang Wong (traditional Javanese theatre) performance by Kesenian Tedja Timur in the historical Kampong Gelam precinct. ⓒ Malay Heritage Centre

Owing to its Catholic traditions, the Philippines is perhaps one of the few countries in the world that celebrates Christmas the earliest and the longest. The country marks the Christmas holidays starting from 1 September. Shopping malls and shops will start displaying Christmas decorations; families will start to put up Christmas trees in their houses; and Christmas songs will be heard almost everywhere.\n\nSan Fernando, a city located in the province of Pampanga, is known as the Philippine Christmas capital. The city is famous for its colorful and handcrafted lanterns that had been part of the province’s Christmas traditions since the 1900s. The Christmas lantern is called parul sampernandu in Kapampangan, the local language of the Pampanga province or parol in Filipino. The origin of the word parol came from the Spanish farol, which means lantern or light. The lanterns symbolize the Star of Bethlehem, thus most lantern designs from San Fernando incorporate a star caricature. In the Catholic tradition, the Three Kings are believed to have followed the Star of Bethlehem that led them to find the Child Jesus in a manger.\n\nEvery December, the Giant Lantern Festival (Ligligan Parul in Kapampangan) is held in San Fernando. The lanterns are transformed like gigantic glowing stars with rotors that synchronize thousands of dancing lights and the sound of Christmas melodies. Usually the giant lanterns are about six meters tall and hung up in the air. Decorated with thousands of light bulbs, capiz shells, and fiberglass, the giant lanterns are stuck to polyvinyl plastic. It is a festival for the eyes; people flock at night to witness the grand salvo of lights and sound.\n\nThe Giant Lantern Festival is also a competition where various barangays in Pampanga compete to win for the most beautiful giant lantern in the province. The locals take pride in their province’s competition as it is where they showcase their creativity and knowledge in crafting the intricate designs of giant lanterns. Tracing back to the country’s colonial history, the lantern-making tradition in San Fernando Province is influenced by the Spanish. The Spanish encouraged the local people to have lantern processions in honor of Our Lady of La Naval or the blessed Virgin Mary. In the past, the people would have a nine-day novena called lubenas, which was usually held before Christmas. The religious tradition has evolved to become the Giant Lantern Festival where people flock to witness the spectacular yuletide festival.\n\nPhoto : 2012 "Ligligan Parul" Giant Lantern Festival CCBYSA3.0 Ramon FVelasquez / WikiMedia

Durga Puja sits at the core of Bengali identity in India. It is also the biggest annual festival in the Indian state of West Bengal. Held in autumn, between September and October, Durga Puja is essentially a Hindu religious event, but the celebrations transcend all barriers of religion and creed, generating a night-long carnival of the masses for four to five days.\n\nThe phenomenon of Community Durga Puja, organized by residents of different localities, adds a unique social dimension to the festival. There are thousands of committees which organize Community Durga Puja across West Bengal. Teeming crowds zigzag their way through a maze of roads, streets, and lanes in the city of Kolkata all through the night. They come in droves—in cars, in taxis, and on foot—to catch glimpses of the idols, lights, themes, and the pavilions housing the deities called pandals. Over the years, the social-liberal polity of Bengal has accommodated a vast range of socio-cultural themes as well as various folk art and craft forms in the design of the idols, pandals, and illumination at the community Durga Pujas. The entire city of Kolkata becomes a public art space.\n\nThe photograph shows a pavilion celebrating intangible cultural heritage in the festival this year, held from September 26 to September 30. This Community Puja titled ‘Swarna Chitra’ is named after the leading woman scroll painter Swarna Chitrakar. Swarna is an exponent of Patachitra, a traditional storytelling art form of West Bengal where the artist sings the story while unfurling the scroll.\n\nPhoto : © banglanatak dot com

Cultural heritage in Vietnam is a valuable property of the Vietnamese people and the foundation for national traditions that have formed over many generations. With more than 40,000 cultural heritage elements and sites, Vietnam has highly respected treasures to be introduced to the rest of the world whenever possible. Taking care of cultural heritage means regarding what the past, present, and imaginable future have engendered to improve national identity.\n\nAfter Vietnam’s independence in 1945, and on behalf of provisional government of Democratic Republic of Vietnam, President Ho Chi Minh signed Decree No 65 on 23 November 1945. The decree formally mandates conserving antique vestiges, or what will later be known as cultural heritage. Based on the concept of conservation and to promote tradition and Vietnamese cultural heritage, the Prime Minister approved Decision No 36/2005/QD-TTg on 24 January 2005 to officially set 23 November as Vietnam’s Cultural Heritage Day. The November holiday is festive with many educational events that explain what it means to be responsible for protecting cultural heritage and why it is important to do so.\n\nTo celebrate this year’s Cultural Heritage Day, events are being prepared by relevant institutions. In the Ho Guom Cultural Information Centre, a photo exhibition on Vietnamese heritage will be held, featuring the winning photos of the 2017 Vietnam Heritage Photo Awards. The exhibition will take place in front of the center in Hanoi and will then move to other cities through March 2018. In the Vietnam Exhibition Centre for Culture and Arts,Green Heritage Culture and Tourism Week will be organized under the theme “The Convergence of Human and Nature”, gathering nationwide communities together to exchange and introduce their lasting cultural values.

The Newar community of Nepal celebrates a festival known as Sa Paru (Procession of Cows or Festival of Cows) every year on the first day of the waning moon of Bhadra (between August and September). It fell on 27 August this year. On this day, people take cows to the streets for a procession throughout the ancient city. They also take young boys dressed as gods, carrying traditional musical instruments. Others join the procession with incense sticks. Two important components of the festival are entertainment value and religious piety. This is why people make sure the festival is a fun event and at the same time a space where they can demonstrate kindness to each other by giving and sharing water, juice, or milk.\n\nThe ancient tales regarding the origin of this festival date back to the seventeenth century, the time of death of the young son of King Pratap Malla. Seeing the queen inconsolable, the king started a procession of his kingdom’s common subjects who had lost their loved ones the same year. This was the king’s way of showing the queen that she was not alone in experiencing the pain of losing someone important; that other people, rich and poor, are equally vulnerable to loss and suffering. Even though the king of Kathmandu is believed to have started this procession, other cities like Bhaktapur and Patan also celebrate the festival. Without a doubt, it is also celebrated in other cities throughout the country where the Newars of Kathmandu Valley migrated and settled.\n\nA distinctive aspect of the festival is that humor has an oddly thematic attribute about it. People go on the streets dressed as various funny characters; some men are even dressed as women. This humor tendency of the festival is known as khyalaa. A reading of this in the context of the festival could be that humor may help people go through the sometimes intoxicating process of mourning and commemoration; that laughing about loss could be a way to deliver oneself from the pain. Furthermore, the humor tendency of the festival also serves as grounds for local actors to organize street plays satirizing the government. During times of strict political regulation and censorship, this festival provided artists with the freedom to express their dissatisfaction, giving the general public a chance to feel that their sentiments are still relevant. In contemporary times, these street plays are not as common as they were, but some villages and towns in Kathmandu Valley like Pyang Gau and Kirtipur continue the street plays. Now the dynamics and operation of plays during the festival are changing; most are commercially organized in public venues and theaters. At any rate, the festival is remembered as a spectacular union of humor and commemoration.\n\nPhoto 1 : Family members of the decreased person participating in the processions. The men in white dress are sons of the decreased family and its custom that the sons wear the white dress for the whole year if their parents die. The kids in the flashy dress are the children of that family. © Monalisa Maharjan\nPhoto 2 : Participants in the procession © Monalisa Maharjan

Derived from a Buddhist belief, the Hae Pha Khuen That Festival is centuries-old and still practiced to today. The event is a gathering of Buddhists parading in streets, carrying cloth called pha bot to wrap around the stupa that houses the relic of Buddha. According to the legend, the tradition of wrapping cloth around the stupa originated during the reign of the King Si Thamma Sokkarat, the first monarch of the Tam Porn Link Kingdom and founder of Nakorn Si Thammarat. At that time, the stupa had been just built, and the king heard that some people on a voyage to Sri Lanka to bring pha bot as an offering had sunk into the sea due to a violent storm. The King then decided to bring the cloth to wrap around the newly made stupa to pay homage to Buddha and celebrate his new constructed relic house.\n\nNowadays, Hae Pha Khuen That takes place yearly at Wat Phra Mahathat Worramahawihan, a royal temple in Nakorn Si Thammarat Province in southern Thailand, where the aforementioned stupa is located. The event is held on the full moon day of the third lunar month (Makha Bucha Day), a religious holiday; it usually falls in February. This year, it will be held from 13 to 19 February 2019. The most important activity of the event is carrying the pha bot to warp around the main stupa, inside of which is the relic of Buddha. Locals of Nakorn Si Thammarat and people from other parts of Thailand are expected to take part in a parade carrying more than a thousand yards of yellow or white cloth from the main city to the temple and walk around the stupa three times before covering the stupa with the cloth. It is believed that participating in the activity brings good luck to life and families.\n\nIn addition to wrapping cloth around the main stupa, there will be lots of entertainment and cultural activities such as chants, sermons, meditation, food offerings, exhibitions, and a cultural product market as well as light and sound shows all day and all night during the festival. Hae Pha Khuen That is famous all over Thailand. In 2014, Hae Pha Khuen That Festival was inscribed by the Department of Cultural Promotion, Ministry of Culture, as National ICH in the category of Social Practices, Rituals and Festival. The festival has been in practice for generations, celebrating the blessing of and faith in Buddha.\n\nA festival guide for 2019 is available online at http://www.thaifestivalblogs.com/hae-pha-khuen-that-festival/\n\nPhoto : Hae Pha Khuen That Festival @ Department of Cultural Promotion of Thailand

Loy Krathong Festival is a yearly event in Thailand on the full moon night of the twelfth lunar month, usually in November. This festival has a long history dating back to the Sukhothai era and continuously maintains its popularity in the present. It is a local ritual in honor of the goddess of water to get rid of misfortunes for a better future. During the festival, people gather by a river or canal float krathong, a basket made of banana trunk and leaves in the shape of a blooming lotus. This performance is more of a prayer that the krathong will take their hardships and bad luck far away. Traditionally, families make at least one krathong as beautiful as they can, decorated with various flowers, candles, and joss sticks. Strands of hair, nails, clothes, and money are sometimes placed in the krathong, too. Before floating it, people light the candle and joss sticks and make a wish, asking for forgiveness from the goddess of water for any deeds that may have disappointed her, and ask her to take their bad luck away.\n\nThis ritualistic performance is practiced throughout Thailand, though each location has its own way of performing it. There are also some fun activities during the festival such as the Best Krathong Competition to honor the most beautiful and creative krathong, Noppamas beauty pageant to crown a beautiful and smart girl (named after Noppamas, a beautiful consort of the King Lethai’s grandson during the Sukhothai era), fireworks display, traditional costume display, and many other traditional entertainment and performances.\n\nLooking into how the festival has been carried out over the last decade, people have come up with more resourceful and impressive ways to participate in the festival. Some have used foam or plastic and artificial decorations to make a lighter krathong that can float well on water. In response to global warming, people have also become more vigilant in using eco-friendly materials in creating Krathong. For example, a krathong-shaped bread has already been created for the festival; it didn’t leave waste on the water, and it also served as a fish food. Commonly, banana trunks and leaves have also been used to create krathong.\n\nPhoto : Loy krathong ⓒ Department of Cultural Promotion

The seventh month of the lunar calendar is regarded as a month in which the gates of heaven and hell are opened so that ghosts and spirits, including deceased ancestors, can come back to visit the living in China and other Asian countries with Chinese migrants, such as Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Indonesia. The fifteenth day of the month is called Zhongyuan Jie (中元節) in China, Baekjung (百中) in Korea, Obon (お盆) in Japan, and the Hungry Ghost Festival in other countries. The day’s story origin derives from an old Buddhist tale about Mu Lian.1.\nMu Lian, one of Buddha’s disciples, converted to Buddhism after losing his parents at a young age. As his longing for his mother grew stronger, his clairvoyance found her suffering from ravenous appetites that could not be satisfied in hell. He tried to offer food to his mother, but the food burned into ashes when it touched her mouth. Mu Lian asked Buddha about how he could relieve his mother’s suffering. When he prepared food offerings as directed by Buddha, his mother was saved from suffering. This tale developed into a Buddhist ritual2. to offer food for ancestors and was combined with Taoist tradition to celebrate Zhongyuan Jie. At Zhongyuan Jie, people hold memorial services for ancestors and other spirits.\n\nIn Singapore, people prepare ritualistic food offerings and burn incense and joss paper in front of their apartments, stores, or companies for their ancestors’ visiting spirits. They murmur prayers while burning joss paper and go round in a circle with nobody else getting inside. Some even burn miniature paper houses, cars, and smartphones. Unlike most countries that hold traditional rites, the city-state celebrates Zhongyuan Jie in a more modern way. A getai3. is held at vacant lots or parking lots during the Ghost Festival. Getai performances were usually of Chinese operas or puppet shows in the past. Now they have evolved into various forms, including songs, dances, and stand-up comedy. A getai performance usually begins with jokes and comedy, using various languages such as Mandarin, Hokkien (a Southern Min Chinese dialect originating from Fujian Province), English, Malay, and Indian. The first row is left empty so that the spirits can sit and enjoy the performance comfortably. Although getai performances have been modernized, all the songs and dances serve the same purpose of consoling dead souls and pleasing the king of the underworld.\n\nDuring the festival, evil spirits come out with ancestral spirits. There are taboos to protect innocent people from evil spirits, such as going home late and swimming so as not to be pulled by water ghosts. People are also recommended not doing new things, like a trip, wedding, or risky movements, to avoid curses from evil spirits. They should spend their time in a more religious and controlled way than usual.\n\nSingaporean authorities have made various social and cultural efforts to preserve the Ghost Festival and pass it on to future generations. Singapore’s Taoist and Buddhist Federations have encouraged devotees to burn offerings responsibly as Nanyang Technological University scientists found that concentrations of small pollutant particles increased by 60 percent during the Hungry Ghost Festival, saying that it is not a case of “the more the merrier” since it is sincerity that counts. Singapore has grown based on coexistence and harmony among various peoples. As such, it emphasizes respect for different cultures even when enjoying a festival, highlighting that such celebrations should not be limited to a certain group. Collective efforts at all levels of society have made the Hungry Ghost Festival open to all people in Singapore. This festival provides lessons on how to discuss and resolve social issues and ethnic conflicts amid the progress of globalization.\n\nPhoto : Hungry ghost prayer table CCBYSA3.0 Mezanurrahman (Wikimedia)

Navruz (Nowruz) is not just about the first day of spring, but it is also not just a celebration of the New Year marked by indulging in a feast; it has a much wider historical and cultural context with deep doctrinal significance.