Vishwakarma Puja: a special day for Nepal’s vehicles and workshops
Aswin Sankranti is Vishwakarma Puja day, and across Nepal garages, factories and transport businesses celebrate by worshipping their machines, tools and vehicles. Many workshops stay closed. Mechanics spend the day at the temple or in the workshop doing puja.
In auto garages, workers clean their space and decorate it with flowers and lights. Vishwakarma’s image or a clay or sand idol is placed in the centre and worshipped with incense, tika and prasad. Tools, engine parts and full vehicles — from small bikes to heavy trucks — are lined up for puja. Vehicle owners join in, hoping for safe running and fewer breakdowns over the coming year.
There is a widespread belief that worshipping the tools and engines on this day helps them last longer and work better. Many factories take their Vishwakarma idols to clean river spots like Sundarijal in the days after the festival for immersion. For Nepal’s mechanics and drivers, this festival is a yearly reminder that looking after tools and vehicles, spiritually and in regular maintenance, is part of their working life.
For Nepali vehicle users, Vishwakarma Puja has become an important safety ritual as well as a cultural one.
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