Kalash people celebrate Ghonachanjarat festival

PESHAWAR: The Kalash people on Saturday celebrated Ghonachanjarat event as part of the ongoing Chawmoss festival in the scenic Kalash valley in Chitral district.

The Kalash women and young girls collected branches of cedar trees in Rambur, Bamburet and Birrir valleys and made baskets of them. The women and girls from three valleys later gathered and performed dance in chorus and celebrated the Ghonachanjarat festival. In Kalash calender, December 21 is the shortest and last day of the year and they mark December 22 as first day of the new year. All the Kalash people, including men, women and children have gathered in Batreek village in Bamburet valley for performing religious and cultural rituals during the night. They perform their own religious rituals all the night and wait till the sunrise of December 22 to mark it as the first day of the new year.

A number of foreign tourists are in the Kalash valley and enjoying different festivities with the indigenous tribe in the ongoing Chawmoss festival.

The Tourism Police are providing security to the people of Kalash people and visiting foreign tourists. The tourists were keen to know about the religious, cultural, tourism and historical perspective of the Kalash valley and its inhabitants.