Ghode Jatra(Nepali:घोडे जात्रा) is a horse festival native to Kathmandu, Nepal. The festival occurs annually in mid-March or early April.
In the festival, a horse parade is organized in Tundikhel and competitions are held in the presence of the head of the state. Nepal Army organizes the parade and competitions.
Kathmandu native Newar people mark the festival with a feast. A public holiday is observed in Kathmandu on the day of Ghode Jatra. 1
Origin
In the inner city of Kathmandu, whenever children disappeared, it was assumed that demons or cannibals did it. In order to scare off the bad spirits, campers in Tudikhel who had horses with them, were asked to run those horses around Tudikhel to scare off the demons. People gathered and fed the demons near the tree that is still located in the middle of Tudikhel. The ritual later took a form of festival. The tradition later changed into a national festival. 1
The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Ghode Jatra”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. 1
Ghode Jatra is festival and public holiday in Nepal, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. 2
What does it look like? No licensed photograph yet.
Archive of Living Traditions
A free public archive of the world’s living and endangered cultural traditions — documented with primary sources, geographic coordinates, and open-licensed photography. Two rooms, one wall. The door is open.