Chawmos (cawmōs, ghona chawmos yat, Khowar "chitrimas" from cāturmāsyá, CDIAL 4742) is a festival of the

Kalash people The Kalash (), or Kalasha, are a small Indo-Aryan indigenous people residing in the Chitral District of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. The term is also used to refer to several distinct Nuristani speaking people, including th ...

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

. It is also sometimes spelled ''chaumos''. It is celebrated for two weeks at

winter solstice The winter solstice, or hibernal solstice, occurs when either of Earth's geographical pole, poles reaches its maximum axial tilt, tilt away from the Sun. This happens twice yearly, once in each hemisphere (Northern Hemisphere, Northern and So ...

(Dec. 7-22), at the beginning of the month chawmos mastruk in two weeks. Chawmos is celebrated without musical instruments in the Rumbur and Bumborate villages but with instruments in

Birir Lower Chitral District (; ) is a district in Malakand Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan. It is mainly populated by the ethnic Kho people. Demographics As of the 2023 census, Lower Chitral district has 46,028 households ...

village. Chawmos comes after the Kalash finish their fieldwork and store their cheese, fruit, vegetables and grains for the year.

Rituals

The first week of Chawmos (7-14 December) is for the Kalash people only. Kalash girls select their

bridegroom A bridegroom (often shortened to groom) is a man who is about to be married or who is newlywed. When marrying, the bridegroom's future spouse is usually referred to as the bride. A bridegroom is typically attended by a best man and grooms ...

s after some rituals. The entire population remains indoors. It is celebrated by feasting until the elders, who sit on a hilltop, watching the sun reaching the orbit, declare the advent of the New Year. Children go up to the mountain, where they divide into boys and girls, and respectively make a big

bonfire A bonfire is a large and controlled outdoor fire, used for waste disposal or as part of a religious feast, such as Saint John's Eve. Etymology The earliest attestations date to the late 15th century, with the Catholicon Anglicum spelling i ...

. In the second week of Chawmos (15-22 December), the people thank their god with dance and music. This part of festival is public. It involves much music and dancing, and the sacrifice of many goats. It is dedicated to the god Balimain who is believed to visit from the mythical homeland of the Kalash, Tsyam (Tsiyam, tsíam), for the duration of the feast. Food sacrifices are offered at the clans' Jeshtak shrines, dedicated to the ancestors. At Chawmos, impure and uninitiated persons are not admitted; they must be purified by a waving a fire brand over women and children and by a special fire ritual for men, involving a

shaman Shamanism is a spiritual practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with the spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritual energies into ...

waving

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brands over the men. The 'old rules' of the gods (Devalog, dewalōk) are no longer in force, as is typical for year-end and carnival-like rituals. 'The main Chawmos ritual takes place at a Tok tree, a place called Indra's place, "indrunkot", or "indréyin". Indrunkot is sometimes believed to belong to Balumain's brother, In(dr), lord of cattle. Ancestors, impersonated by young boys (ōnjeṣṭa 'pure') are worshipped and offered bread; they hold on to each other and form a chain (cf. the

Vedic upright=1.2, The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the '' Atharvaveda''. The Vedas ( or ; ), sometimes collectively called the Veda, are a large body of religious texts originating in ancient India. Composed ...

anvārambhaṇa) and snake through the village. The men must be divided into two parties: the pure ones have to sing the well-honored songs of the past, but the impure sing wild, passionate, and obscene songs, with an altogether different rhythm. This is accompanied by a 'sex change': men dress as women, women as men (Balumain also is partly seen as female and can change between both forms at will). During the Chawmos prayers, a procession goes to a high plateau outside the village in Balangkuru where a long night of dancing begins. The festivals continue for many more days, moving on to different locations within the valleys. It is the most exciting among all the festivals. Girls dance in cold weather and snowfall and boys play various winter games in the festival. Tourists rarely visit the festival due to blockage of roads and heavy snowfall.

References

Festivals in Pakistan Folk festivals Ceremonies Kalash culture Kalash people {{Festival-stub

Rituals

See also

References