The Newar community is celebrating the Maha Ashtami festival on the eighth day of Dashain this evening by feasting on 'Kuchhi Bhavya'. In Newari, 'kuchhi' means two manas, while 'bhavya' means feast. On the day of Maha Ashtami, it is customary to serve food in banana leaves. In the Newar community, this celebration is of great significance and special importance.
To celebrate the festival, one needs 12 kinds of vegetables to eat 12 pieces of choyala, a popular Newari meat dish. The banana leaves contain 1.12 liters of beaten rice as well as greens, potatoes, choyala, hikasa (blood), bara, eggs, fish, persimmons, khyapi chyapi (two small varieties of raw persimmons), ginger, black eyed beans, garden beans, black grams, sponge gourd, soybean etc. There is a belief in the Newar community that even if you are mourning, you should eat something. Since meat should not be eaten in a mourning house, it is customary to keep ginger and corn instead of meat.
On the morning of Maha Ashtami, the Newar community brings the meat of Dashain into their homes. In the community, it is customary for Guthi and locality neighbors to jointly cut and share the meat of the calf. When meat is brought in, blood is sprinkled on the main door of the house, but it is customary to bring in meat only after eating it.
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