PARV 5 OF 30 · BAISAKH
जुड़ शीतल
15 April, the day after Satuani, the Maithili new year
"जुड़ शीतल रहू"
Katha · The story
Jud Sheetal is Mithila's new year and the gentlest festival of the calendar. Before sunrise the eldest person in the house fills their palms with cold water from a clay ghara and pours it on the heads of everyone younger, saying "jud sheetal rahu", stay cool, stay calm, as the hot season begins. Nobody lights the kitchen fire. The food cooked the day before, on Satuani, is eaten cold: basi bhaat, dal, sattu and the last of the rice.
After the blessing the family goes out with pots and pours water at the roots of every tree in the baari and the gachhi, and on the tulsi. The elders say it is the day the trees are given to drink before the loo, the hot west wind, arrives. The old story, told in Maithili, is of a king of Mithila who during a terrible summer ordered every household to feed and water the land before themselves, and the rains that year came early.
Mahatva · Significance
It begins the Maithili year (Tirhuta panchang) and marks the turning from spring to summer. Its three acts, blessing with water, eating without fire, and watering trees, are a short course in how Mithila thinks about heat, elders and the land.
"हाथ में घैला, माथ पर पानी, नया साल के पहिल कहानी"
A line everyone at the festival knows
Vidhi · How it is done in Malinagar
Basi bhaat with dahi, sattu, aam ki chutney, and jal-jeera.
Sons and daughters in the cities get a phone call from the eldest at home that morning. If you cannot be present, you still get the words.