Kushe Aunsi is a Nepali Sanatan Hindu lunar festival celebrating fatherhood and paternal bonds, equivalent to the Father’s Day celebration. The festival falls on the new moon day of the Sanatan month of Bhadra. Kushe Aausi is the father’s festival and is known as Gokarna Aausi.
Aausi is a non-moon day. On this day the children take blessings from the father by providing them with delicious foods, sweets, meat, fruits, clothes and other presents. The children who are abroad talk to their father through. Many of them do video calls. Those whose fathers are no more, remember their fathers through ritual and spiritual contemplation.
With increasing modernity, the practice of sending fathers and mothers to old age homes, neglecting them due to lack of time and resources, and treating them with contempt is on the rise.
The celebration and fun of the festival depends upon the place, climate and ethnicity. On the streets, married daughters are seen with goodies making their way to their maternal home to meet their father. The date does not coincide with International Father’s Day and is based on the lunar calendar as all the other cultural festivals are celebrated in Nepal.
To mark the day some men in Kathmandu go to Gokarna dham, Uttar Gaya temple to do the snan, sraddha /sidadan/pinda daan (donate) which is equivalent to visiting Gaya 10 times to their deceased father. Some do shardha at home or the nearby river or at any holy place nearby. Especially for the salvation of ancestors, the importance of this place of pilgrimage has been great since mythological times. In this holy place, frequently mentioned in Sanatan texts, taking a dip on the day of Kushe Aaushi is considered highly auspicious.
Kush is used while taking baths, during karmakandi daan, jaap, hawon, pathpooja, pitrikarya and dusk. Therefore, kush is regarded as very important in Sanatan Hindu culture. Hindu people use kush grass in all functions, auspicious or in-auspicious, a ritual-performing person needs to tie the kush round the finger (wear a ring made) of this grass.
Importance of Kush in our culture
This sacred and scientifically proven plant is a widespread genus in the grass family found on almost all continents, inhabited hills, and islands. Kush is a sacred plant with a very important cultural and religious role in the Vedic Sanatan Hindu rites, the scientific significance of which has also been proven.
Kush, scientifically called Eragrostis cynosuroides, is a sharp-edged grass of religious faith. A variety of medicines are also made from the roots of the plant Kush, which is easily available from the Terai to the hills of Nepal.
In ancient times, Kush’s sharp grass was cut with empty hands during the examinations of the students studying in the Gurukul. Kush is compulsory in every ritual of Satanaga philosophy. Today, Kush is brought home on a night or Aaunshi. The glory of Kush is also described in the Bhagavad Gita, Garud Purana, Atharva Veds, and Vishnu Puran.
During a scientific experiment, a handful of Kush was placed between the radiations and it was found that Kush reflected all the radiations away from its surroundings.
Thus the perpetual use of Kush in the Sanatan culture presents the records of ancient science and the effective practical lifestyle. From generation to generation, Hinduism encourages everyone to use the rings and other cultural uses made from this scientifically proven marvellous Kush. The use of Kush as a ring on the finger of the right hand demonstrates the belief and scientifically proven principles that annihilate the turbulent waves and radiation in the atmosphere.
