Yomari punhi is a Newari festival marking the end of the rice harvest. It takes place during the full moon in December
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Yomari Punhi, meaning full moon of yomari-one of the popular Newar
festivals, is observed every year during the full moon of December. A
yomari is a confection of rice-flour (from the new harvest)dough shaped
like fig and filled with brown cane sugar and sesame seeds, which is
then steamed. This delicacy is the chief item on the menu during the
post-harvest celebration of Yomari Punhi. On this full moon day, people
of the Kathmandu Valley offer worship to Annapurna, the goddess of
grains, for the rice harvest. Groups of kids go neighborhood to beg
yomari cakes from housewives in the evening. Sacred masked dances are
performed in the villages of Hari Siddhi and Thecho at the southern end
of the Valley to mark the festival.
