GATHAN MUGA (GATHE MANGAL)
"Gathan Muga" signals the end of the rice-planting season and the beginning of the autumn festival season. This festival falls in the month of August. The festival itself (known variously as Gathe mangal, Ghantakarna) represents a ritual detoxification of the city. Evil spirits that might have sneaked in during the rice-planting season on the persons of the farmers or their tools are banished outside the urban limits to preserve the city's harmony.
In the morning of this day, effigies of the Gathan muga demon are erected at street intersections. Girls tie dolls to the effigy and people wear iron rings on their fingers to ward off evil spirits. A man wearing war-paint all over his body goes about begging for money. At the end of the day, the effigy is taken down. The painted man is made to sit on it and the neighbourhood kids drag it away to the river bank. Householders then place pots of cooked rice at the crossroads as food for the evil spirits. Iron nails are also hammered into the door lintels to keep them out ( the spooks are terrified of iron).
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