The festival marks the end of the monsoon season and beginning of autumn. More than hundred girls under the age of nine gathered for the tradition of worshiping young pre-pubescent girls as manifestations of the divine female energy. The ritual holds a strong religious significance in Newar community. It is a community affair held primarily to save small girls from diseases and bad luck in the years to come. Photo: A young Nepalese girl dressed as a Kumari or living Goddess, smiles for camera as she waits for Kumari puja at Hanuman Dhoka, Basantapur Durbar Square in Katmandu, Nepal, Tuesday, September 17, 2013. (Photo by Niranjan Shrestha/AP Photo)

A Hindu holy man, or sadhu, smokes marijuana on a chillum (pipe) at the premises of Pashupatinath Temple during the Shivaratri festival in Kathmandu February 27, 2014. Hindu holy men from Nepal and India come to this temple to take part in the Shivaratri festival. Celebrated by Hindu devotees all over the world, Shivaratri is dedicated to Lord Shiva, and holy men mark the occasion by praying, smoking marijuana or smearing their bodies with ashes. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)

Nepalese women performs ritual as they take a holy bath in the Bagmati River, during the Rishi Panchami festival, in Kathmandu, Nepal September 18, 2015. Rishi Panchami is observed on the last day of Teej when women worship Sapta Rishi (Seven Saints) to ask for forgiveness for sins committed during their menstrual periods throughout the year. The Hindu religion considers menstruation as a representation of impurity and women are prohibited from taking part in religious practices during their monthly menstruations. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)

A visitor takes photos while attending the Dandenong Festival of Lights in the suburb of Dandenong in Melbourne, Australia, September 23, 2015. The month-long festival, set up by the Chinese Cultural Works Light Spectacular, celebrates Chinese culture through a display of hundreds of beautiful and unique silk light displays, according to the event's website. (Photo by Darrin Zammit Lupi/Reuters)

A police poses on the durians during festival durian on the giant mount of durian at northern slopes of Mount Arjuna in East Java. Each year, nine villages in Wonosalam district hold a festival to give thanks for an abundance of this stinky, spiky fruit, which they pile in a 10-meter-high pyramid and distribute among the hungry masses. (Photo by Sigit Pamungkas/JG Photo)

Revellers, dressed as “Zarramaches”, pose inside the city hall during celebrations to mark Saint Blaise's festivity in Casavieja, Spain February 3, 2017. (Photo by Sergio Perez/Reuters)

A reveller participates in a flour fight during the “O Entroido” festival in Laza village, Spain February 27, 2017. (Photo by Miguel Vidal/Reuters)

A woman poses for photographs with traditional side dish Kimchi during the Seoul Kimchi Festival in central Seoul, South Korea, November 4, 2016. Kimchi made with cabbage, other vegetables and chili sauce and kimchi is the most popular traditional food in Korea. (Photo by Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters)