CHITRAL, May 14 (TNS): \u00a0The four-day Kalasha \u2018Chilim Josh Festival 2018\u2019 kicked off on Monday in Chitral.<\/p>\n
The first ritual \u2018chirik pipi\u2019 milk distribution by shepherds to welcome the spring was held in Bumburet Kalash valley.<\/p>\n
To the Kalasha, the festival is the culmination of religious life and like the big funerals. The \u2018Chilim Jusht \/ Joshi Festival\u2019 is the spring festival which is observed in the middle of May and lasts for four days.<\/p>\n
The locals believe that the spring festival honors the fairies and also safeguards the goats and shepherds when they go to the pastures.<\/p>\n
Prior to the festival, the women and girls gather from all over the valley and decorate their houses. Inside the houses local wine and milk products are shared. The women then sprinkle milk on Goddess \u2018Jestak\u2019 \u201cthe protector of children and home\u201d.<\/p>\n
The festival begins at Rumbur where the Shaman (soothsayer) and tribal chiefs lead a procession to the \u2018Malosh altar\u2019, high above Grum, to sacrifice goats to the Gods. Later the festival moves on to Bumburate and ends up at Birir.<\/p>\n
The Kalasha are colourful and ancient indigenous people. They are cheerful, generous, witty and fond of rejoicing and merry making. Their women folk have an outgoing manner that is disarming, delightful and unexpected.<\/p>\n
Every religious ceremony is accompanied by dancing and rhythmical chant to the beat of the drum. The women wearing their traditional black robes, ornate cowries shelled head dresses and adorned with colored necklaces, dance in a circle. Then the men join in: it may be a man and a woman or a man in the middle with women on each side, lovers being free to intermingle. One hand is held round the waist of the partner and the other around the shoulders. Tribal chiefs (Kazis) in colorful dresses narrate stories of bygone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
CHITRAL, May 14 (TNS): \u00a0The four-day Kalasha \u2018Chilim Josh Festival 2018\u2019 kicked off on Monday in Chitral. The first ritual \u2018chirik pipi\u2019 milk distribution by shepherds to welcome the spring was held in Bumburet Kalash valley. To the Kalasha, the festival is the culmination of religious life and like the big funerals. The \u2018Chilim Jusht […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":65312,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=65311"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65313,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65311\/revisions\/65313"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/65312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=65311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=65311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=65311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}