As Bibaha Panchami nears, preparations for the weeklong festival have started at Janaki Temple in Janakpurdham, Dhanusha.

The workers are working till late night to decorate the main gates and pitch the tents for the festival ceremony. Among the several festivals celebrated in Mithila, Bibaha Panchami is marked in the grandest manner.
Each year, the festival is celebrated to mark the auspicious day of the wedding anniversary of Goddess Sita of Janakpur and Lord Ram of Ayodhya, India.
The pre-historic period wedding is believed to have taken place on Marga Sukla Panchami, hence the day is called Bibaha Panchami, said main priest of the temple Ram Tapeshwor Das.
He said that the Janaki Temple Administration has been working hard for the preparation of the festival, which falls on December 8 this year. But the weeklong celebration starts from December 3.
Building the stage on the temple premises, decorating the Janaki temple and its main gates are running in full swing, he said.
Das added that foreign tourists had started visiting the temple one and a half years after the COVID-19 pandemic upended normal life in Nepal.
It will manage free food for all the visitors during the festival.
A huge crowd of devotees will gather at Janakpurdham from several parts of Nepal, India and other nations on the occasion of the Bibaha Panchami, he added.
To manage the festival, a meeting was called on Friday. The meeting has formed committees and sub-committees to organise the festival reports The Rising Nepal.