Mithilanchal · Middle & Lower Gangetic Plain
Festivals
| Festival | When | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Chhath | Kartik (October–November) and Chaitra (March–April) | Four days of fasting and offerings to the setting and rising sun, standing in water. There is no priest, no temple and no image; the fast is kept mostly by women and is famously strict. The region empties of migrants and fills again for it. |
| Sama-Chakeva | Kartik, for about eight nights after Chhath | Sisters make clay figures of birds and of the siblings Sama and Chakeva, sing to them nightly, enact a story of slander and vindication, and finally break the figures and see them off — a festival of the brother-sister bond that exists only in Mithila and the Nepal terai. |
| Vivaha Panchami | Margashirsha (November–December), at Janakpur | The anniversary of Rama and Sita's marriage, celebrated at Janakpur with a full wedding procession arriving from Ayodhya. The largest cross-border festival of the region. |
| Madhushravani | Shravan (July–August) | A thirteen-day observance kept by newly married Maithil women, involving daily worship of Gauri and of snake deities, a specific set of stories told each day, and a final ordeal with burning wicks. It exists nowhere else. |
| Jur Sital | Mid-April, the Maithil new year | Elders sprinkle water on the heads of the young, stale food cooked the previous day is eaten cold, and ponds and wells are cleaned. A new year built around water and coolness rather than fire. |
| Jitiya (Jivitputrika) | Ashwin (September) | A day-long waterless fast kept by mothers for their sons, with its own song repertoire and a fixed narrative. |
| Durga Puja and Jhijhiya | Ashwin (September–October) | Ten days of goddess worship, with the perforated-pot Jhijhiya dance performed at night through the Navratri period. |
| Sarhul and Salhesh puja | Spring | Shrine festivals of the Dusadh community centred on Raja Salhesh, with all-night narration, dance and offerings at earthen platforms. |
The festival calendar of Mithilanchal — what is celebrated, when it falls and what happens. (8)