PESHAWAR: The two-week-long winter festival of the Kalash community, called Choimos, is in progress in the valleys of Rambur, Bumburet, and Birir valleys of the Chitral district, and the last ritual of the annual winter event will be performed on Thursday (December 22), comprising an activity of fox chasing considered as a good omen.
The festival started on December 8, 2022, in the beautiful Hindu Kush, rang with a ritual of Chutyak Sarazari consisting of smoke-making and visiting villages and households by young boys and girls who sing songs in each house for their good health and luck and are served with delicious food and fruits.
The Choimos, which means winter in the Kalash language, the festival symbolizes a prosperous year for the locality and its inhabitants in the valleys.
Choimos festival significance in Kalash
The festival comprises a famous search for foxes, considered a good omen if found. Torch parades travel from the nearby villages to the Charsue area, the traditional dance venue.
The festival also included a ritual, Khuta Mru, where fresh wheat flour is grinding in the daytime, and then they make walnut bread from it at night. The next morning, the bread is distributed among relatives and neighbors.
During the Chui Nari ritual, boys and girls go to a higher angle of the sacred place for purification and rituals and come back by holding each other, they enter the Jes’tak, Hans, and they start to dance around the fireplace of the temple, and they make pastes out of the firewood of pine leaves.
The next morning, they start making paintings of the ceremonial Hall, with paintings of animals on the walls.
Another event, Sawelik Hari, is for the public and takes place at Bumburet, Krakal village. Most of the officials, tourists, and outsiders come and participate in this event.
During this festival, the boys and girls change their costumes (dresses) and cover their faces to cover their identities. They dance and compete with each other and sing songs all day till late at night.
On the festival’s final day, the officials and tourists participate in the ritual. The boys go to the higher mountain spots at this event, beat the drums, and chase the fox. After the chase, if the fox moves towards the sun, they believe it will be a virtuous year ahead, and if the fox goes towards the snow-bound areas, then they believe it’s not a good year ahead. – APP
