Naag Panchami 2019: The festival of snakes

This year, the festival of snake falls on August 5, 2019. Naag Panchami is the festival when people worship snakes, scorpions and the thunder and pray to be safe from them. This is also the festival to recognize the need to share the earth and recognize the existence of snakes and other animals.

Last year, I had written a long article on the story behind Naag Panchami festival and other details of the celebration. There are two stories in the post:

  • A story of a farmer’s daugher
  • Story of Mahabharat

Nepali words to learn on this Naag Panchami are:

  • Naag (नाग) – Snake God
  • Naagini (नागिनी) – Female Snake God
  • Daar (डर) – Fear
  • Murti ( मूर्ती) – Statue
  • Pooja (पूजा) – Worship
  • Sarpa (सर्प) – Snake
  • Bichchi (बिच्छी) – Scorpio
  • Chatyang (चट्यांङ) – Thunder
  • Dhoka (ढोका) – Door

This following introduction video gives the procedure and a glimpse of how people worship the statue of a snake located at Naag Pokhari in Kathmandu.

Naag is worshiped by offering milk, fruits and foods and pray for welfare of the self and the family. It is believed that worship offering to snakes, statues, and pictures of snakes would reach to the Serpent Gods.

a bit of sarcasm:

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