KATHMANDU: The Newar community celebrated Kartik Purnima, known as ‘Sakimana Punhi’ on Wednesday.

On this day, there is a tradition of boiling and eating ‘saki’, a term for taro (a type of root vegetable), jaggery and sweet potatoes.

The Newar community has a tradition of offering seasonal produce to their family deities before consuming it. The Newar community offers boiled tubers, including taro, jaggery and sweet potatoes, to their family deities before eating them. There is a popular belief that such consumption strengthens the body and keeps one healthy.

Yesterday evening, artistic designs of deities and temples were created in front of the temples using boiled sweet potatoes, taro, and various roasted grains such as maize, soybeans, wheat, peanuts, peas, and chickpeas. This is known as Halimali in the local Newari language, and finally, there is a tradition of consuming this as prasad (a devotional offering made to a god, typically consisting of food that is later shared among devotees).

Sakimana Punhi is also a rare form of artistry presented through grains.