Halda fest begins in Lahaul

Tribune News Service

Mandi, January 28

The traditional Halda festival has begun in Lahaul-Spiti in which residents of Gahar, Chandra and Pattan valleys are taking part. They sing songs and dance together.

The festival begins every year in the second or third week of January and lasts for almost a month.

The residents said to celebrate the event, pencil cedar branches were cut into strips and tied together into bundles to make a torch called halda and was lit in a house where villagers gathered to perform rituals.

Rigzin Samphel Heyreppa of Lahaul said, “The date of the Halda festival is fixed by a lama in the Gahar valley, while in the Pattan valley, it is celebrated on Magh Purnima.”

Mangal Manepa, another resident of the district, said, “The festival is celebrated in January to appease the local deities, seeking better crop in the coming season as well as ward off evil spirits out of the villages.”

Kunga Bodh, a youth of the Lahaul valley, said, “Despite modern era, the residents are preserving their local tradition and culture through fests. These give us opportunity to make merriment together to reduce our sufferings, which we face during winters because of heavy snowfall.”