Sama Chakeva
cultural
When it happens
November
Celebrated from Chhath Puja to Kartik Purnima (November). Region: Mithila, Bihar.
Gallery
Significance
A sweet festival honouring the bond between brothers and sisters through clay bird figurines and traditional theatrical folk songs.
Why it's celebrated
In the Puranic tale, Krishna's daughter Sama was falsely accused and cursed to become a bird, and freed by the devotion of her brother Chakeva. The festival celebrates this bond between brothers and sisters.
How it's celebrated
Unmarried girls craft colourful clay birds and figures - the Sama-Chakeva - worship them, and sing folk songs each evening. On the final day the idols are immersed in the fields or the river.
Key rituals
Each evening the girls set their clay birds in a basket and sing folk songs. On the last day the brothers break and immerse the clay figures in the fields - a rite tied to the brother-sister bond.
Beliefs & spiritual meaning
Celebrating the festival is believed to lengthen a brother's life, and it doubles as a welcome to the migratory birds arriving in Mithila at this season.
History & origins
The festival finds mention in the Puranas and has been kept alive as a folk celebration of Mithila culture for thousands of years.
What to expect
A Mithila festival about sisters and brothers, kept in the weeks after Chhath. Girls make small clay birds, keep them in baskets, sing to them across several evenings, and break them at the end to see the sisters off. It happens in courtyards, and the songs are the whole of it.
Frequently asked
What is the ritual of Churdah?+
Churdah represents the mythological villain who spread false rumors. Burning his paper-and-clay mustache symbolizes the community's collective rejection of negative speech and gossip.
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