The annual Chomos festival ends on Sunday(December 22) as baitan, the religious leader of the Kalash, made prosperous predictions for the New Year in Pakistani Northwest district Bamburet valley.

The festival started In birir Valley of Kalash with live offering made to Malosh, the place of worship, on Friday(December 6).

Baitan made his predictions for the new year as he said that the new year would be good for the Kalash and the country in general but there would be small incidents and difficulties.

The festival formally started in the Rumbur, Bamburet and Birir valleys of Kalash.

During these festivals Kalash men play drums while their women engage in dancing, mostly folk and traditional and they drink home grown wines

Teenagers boys and girls dance in a circular way, hands across each others’ shoulders. They march towards the Charso at Batrik village which is their common dancing place where they perform their dances and congregational rituals.

The community collects milk, cheese, curds, and dry fruits ahead of the festival and during the inauguration of the festival; they give away those items among women and children as a token of gift and share of blessings.

 Muslims are not allowed to their houses, as even talking with non Kalash people would pollute them spiritually, despite the fact that the whole region is surrounded by Muslims.

This year dozens of Goats were slaughtered at Malosh (place of worship)

The Kalash Community lives mostly in remote settlements of Chitral where life is pretty hard.