Sixteen-year-old Sunita Chaudhary from Surkhet has never been a Kamlari. In fact, she says, no girl from her village is sold as Kamlaris these days. Maghi, the first of Magh, is no longer a day when potential employers seek young girls such as Chaudhary as their maids. As she sucks in the snails, a Tharu delicacy during this season, she talks about her impending SLC test exams, for which she will have to end her two-month vacation in Kathmandu and return to Surkhet.

People like Chaudhary thronged Tundikhel on Wednesday for the festival organised to mark Tharu New Year and Makar Sankranti. Artists entertained the crowd from the stage while the tents encircling the stage offered Tharu delicacies from eastern and western Tarai districts. For most Tharus, it was an opportunity to mingle with fellow Tharus; for non-Tharus, it was a chance to savour Tharu culture.

Forty-year-old Surya Narayan Chaudhary from Saptari is a regular to these events organised regularly since 2003 in the Valley. But he says that Tharus in the east don’t celebrate Maghi as grandly as those in the west.

Still, he loves to attend these festivals and enjoy sesame laddoos and sesame rice. It’s also an opportunity for him to initiate his non-Tharu friends.

Surya Narayan’s friend, Prasil Bada, from Bara comes from a village where majority are non-Tharus. He says his ancestors learned to celebrate Maghe Sankranti from Tharus, but left out the snail delicacy.

At the tent run by Koshi Youth Committee, he was trying snails out for the second time at Surya’s request. “I know little about Maghi, but coming to these festivals and enjoying treats helps in understanding cultural history,” says Bada.

For Magars organising a similar festival nearby at Khulamanch, the history of Makar Sankranti is just as fuzzy. Although celebrated as a big festival by Magars, thirty-year-old Min Rana from Nawalparasi is not so sure about the ownership. “Our ancestors failed in teaching us about the history of Makar Sankranti. I am doubtful whether it belongs to us,” quips Rana.

Raghu Thapa Magar, secretary of Kathmandu Magar Society, however, is not bothered by the ownership question. “We’ve been celebrating it for centuries.

It was limited to houses before, now we are at Khulamanch. The meaning of the festival is what matters, not the ethnicity that celebrates it,” says Thapa. Chairman of the Council of Ministers Khil Raj Regmi inaugurated both festivals.