Centuries-old tradition of stone-pelting marked in Himachal Pradesh's Dhami village on the day after Diwali

Dhami: Nearly 40 kilometres from Shimla, Himachal Pradesh’s Dhami village recently organised a stone pelting fair. Thousands of people from different villages near Dhami gathered to celebrate the fair of stone throwing. The young representatives of the royal family of Dhami participated in this fair with an objective to preserve and promote the century-old tradition for a good cause by their family. The religious faith and trust of the villagers of Dhami still motivate them to throw stones at each other to celebrate the festival. The historic fair is celebrated on next day of the Diwali. The procession starts from the temple built by the then King of Dhami and people from two different local clans gather at the venue and throw stones on each other.

#WATCH Shimla: Locals in Dhami Village today observed the traditional ritual of stone pelting, to appease Goddess Kali #HimachalPradesh pic.twitter.com/uVoCPQ22y6

— ANI (@ANI) November 8, 2018

“This fair had been celebrated here for centuries as far as I know and heard from elders, it is nearly 400 years old. It was started with an effort to end the cruel tradition of human sacrifice. A large number of people gather here to see the fair,” said a member of the organizing committee. People believe that the erstwhile queen of Dhami sacrificed herself to end the practice of human sacrifice and asked people to start a fair in which people of two clans will throw stones at the sky and continue until someone is hit, and the blood of that person would be then offered to the goddess Kali.