On 12th August 2017, A typical Buddhist festival of Nepal celebrated on the third day of the dark fortnight of Shrawan (August), Matya begins early in the morning and although the word Matya means ‘the festival of lights’.
During this festival, a long parade of the enthusiastic shrine-walkers goes around all the Buddhistshrines scattered in and around the city of Patan which is rather fascinating because there are more than 1300 Buddhist shrines in Patan alone. The shrine-walkers who participate are around three to four thousands and consist of both, men and women who carry variety of gifts to offer to Lord Buddha. The offering consists mostly of rice, grains, flowers, red powders, sweets, incense and guru patra(a gift cup for guru), however, offering oil or butter lamps to the Lord on this day is most dominant. It is believed that offering the lamps in particular to the Buddha on this day signifies great enlightenment obtained by overcoming the Maras(temptations).
To ease the devotee of Matya, Rotary Club of Lalitpur in association with Rotaract Club of Lalitpur had placed Health Camps at Bhinchebahal and Bubahal. More than 1000 devotees were served with nutritional drinks and 100+ were massaged from the camp. Devotees were also provided basic medicines in case of emergency.
