Gai Jatra (सा पारु / Sa Paru) - Nepal's festival of satire

1641

Gai Jatra, known in Nepal Bhasa as Sa Paru, is a recurring annual Newar festival in the Kathmandu Valley honouring relatives who died in the past year, with children costumed as cows in procession. Since the 1600s it has carried licensed caricature and political satire, with performers openly mocking those in authority. The year is the EARLIEST year of Pratap Malla's reign (1641-1671), to whom the founding is traditionally attributed. NOTE: the attribution is oral tradition; historian Gautama Vajra Vajracharya states 'Pratap Malla did not start Gai Jatra', and some rituals predate him.