08/12/2022
Kalasha winter festival Chawmoss to kick off in mid December
The Kalasha winter festival “Chawmoss” is the biggest festival of the year. As winter starts around mid December, the Chawmoss festival begins.
The festival is celebrated for the divine, the living and dead relatives, crops and the goats to be safeguarded, while the community, the village and the valley are purified prior to the coming year. Sighting a fox is a good omen and great efforts are made in this regard.
At dusk, torch-lit processions are taken out from all the nearby villages. The processions then culminate at the “Charsue”, which is the main customary dancing place. Most of the festivities are indoors where the local wine is handed around as the dance gathers momentum. It is carried out till late in the night round the bonfire.
On the other hand, the tribal elders sit on hilltops at dawn to watch the rising sun and declare the new year.
Goat sacrificed are then made to the Godess “Jastak” , while blood from the animal is sprinkled at the temple Jastime.
When “Balimine”, another great god visits the Kalash valley once a year, sacrifices are made at his “Malosh Altar” .
