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Celebrating Womanhood
A unique cultural experience
Today I witnessed something amazing. The father and mother washed the feet of their daughter with reverence and love.
It was one of my best friends’ daughter’s celebration of her “womanhood.” She had had her first period.
In some cultures in Nepal, I learned, parents celebrate the time when their daughter starts menstruating. This celebration is done by inviting people for a nice meal, giving gifts to the daughter, and performing a ceremony to honor the daughter’s transition from a girl into a woman.
My friends choose to have this celebration. A Hindu priest facilitated the ceremony. It was a beautiful event to witness. For many years, I have been involved in promoting equality in far-west Nepal where menstruation is seen as something impure.
Surprisingly, I had never heard about celebrating a girl’s first menstruation. I am quite thrilled. Same religious base, same country, but different practices in different places.
It sparked a fire in me — of hope, of purity. Somewhere inside deeply-rooted cultural practices lie awesomeness amidst so much misunderstanding and biases.
