KATHMANDU, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- Nepali capital Kathmandu on Sunday is celebrating Gaii Jatra, the Cow Festival.

    Sunday is the day of Gaii Jatra Festival. It is the beginning day of Bhadra, a Nepali month according to the lunar calendar, which means Cow Festival.

    The festival lasts for a week. The festival is mainly observed in the valley where capital Kathmandu is located, local newspaper The Rising Nepal reported on Sunday.

    On the first day of the festival, either actual cows or human beings with oval shaped baskets with painted pictures of a cow and Ganesh on either side of the basket with straw horns to represent cows are sent round the town. Ganesh is the god of wisdom and the remover of obstacles, son of Shiva and Parvati, depicted as a short fat man with an elephant's head, in Hindu religion.

    This is generally done by the bereaved families under the belief that the gate to the heaven will be pushed open with the horns of the cows for the free passage of the departed soul.

    The most remarkable feature of this festival is the exhibition of the different images of the Buddhas in different Vihars (monasteries) of Kathmandu.

    Earlier day of Gaii Jatra is Janai Purnima (on Saturday this year). In Newari language, it is also called Gunupoonhi. On this full moon day, all those Hindu males who have holy threads invested on their bodies bathe in the Bagmati or Bishnumati river or in Holy river and change their new holy thread for the old one.

    It is also the day when Brahman priests go round the houses of their acquaintances and relatives and bind holy threads round their wrists as a protective against evils on this day.