Yomari is a type of Newari food, and Punhi means full moon. Yamari Punhi is a festival celebrated in full moon day by making, eating and distributing Yamari-Tast of Nepal. This punhi is veritably popular in Kathmandu valley. Yomari means delicious bread. Yomari punhi is a Newari jubilee marking the end of the rice crop.
When & Why is Yomari Puhni Celebrated?
It’s observed in full moon day of December. Under Hindu Lunar timetable / calendar it falls on Marga Sukla Purnima every time. This day is also the birthday of Guru Dattatraya / Dhanya Poornima / Udhauli Parba  / International Dignified Menstruation Day.

Yomari-Taste of Nepal
Yomari Punhi is observed during veritably cold days. It’s said eating of Yomari takes down cold. It’s believed so long the tail of yomari as short the downtime will be.
Yomari is made by storming a sweetmeat of rice- flour (from the new crop) dough shaped like fig and filled with Chaku (brown club sugar) and sesame seeds. Yamari is the main item on the menu during thepost-harvest festivity of Yomari Purnima.
How do we celebrate Yamari Purnima
In Yomari purnima people also worship Goddess Anapurna. Annapurna is the goddess of grains and food. It’s the time when growers finish harvesting and taking rest after long day’s work. Kiddies gathered in groups go neighborhood to ask for yomari in the evening. Sacred masked balls are performed in the town lets of Hari Siddhi and Thecho at the southern end of the Kathmandu vale to mark the festival / jubilee.
People believe festivity of yamari punhi brings them wealth, health and substance. People give different shapes to yomaris. Substantially yamaris are prepared in the form of gods and goddesses like Kumar, Ganesh, Laxmi and Kuber. Parents and elders bless children and give kiddies yomaris to eat. The children on the other hand perform the customary song and cotillion and ask for food and other gifts from the elders during the festivals / jubilee.
The festival is believed started from panchal nagar (Panauti). A wedded couple, first experimented with fresh yield of rice from their field. They came out with shape of yomari. The new food was distributed among the townies. The food was liked by all, the delicious bread was named yomari, which literally means delicious bread- Yomari.
The couple offered yamari to Kuber (god of wealth) who was disguised and passing in. Kuber was happy and telling himself blessed the couple with wealth. He also declared that whosoever prepare Yomari in the form of gods and goddesses on the full moon day of Marga Sukla Purnima every time and observe four days of devotion to god, will gain wealth and substance.

योमरी पुन्ही – Yomari Song in Nepal Bhasa

त्यछिं त्य वकछीं त्य लातापाता कुलेचाँ जुछिंत्य ।

योमरी च्वामु उकी दुने हाकु ब्युसा माकु मब्युसा ।।

फाकु ब्युसाल्यासे मब्युस बुढी कुटी ।  

The festival is celebrated for four days. All the four days people supplicate and worship. A big festivity is observed at night in Dhaneshwar Mahadev tabernacle in Banepa. There’s tradition of doing Deepavali at home. People worship god Kuber, Ganesh and goddess Subhadra in these 4 days. On the alternate day Yomari is prepared in the shape of gods and goddesses and stored inside the rice silo (bhakari) and worshiped. On the fourth day Yomari is eaten as Prasad and believed that those gods in the form of yamari enter to mortal body those deification and take yamari Prasad.
People distribute yomari and rice to yomari asking kiddies home to home. In this day goddess durga is worshiped as Dhanyalaxmi or Annapurna mata.
Yamori is compared with the earth. Two sides of Yamari are assumed as North and South Pole. The filling of brown club sugar (chaku) and sesame seeds is regarded as Mahamaya (almighty God). Occasionally, meat is also stuffed in yamari, that yamari is assumed as lord Ganesh. The yomari with black lentil is regarded as God Kumar. On the fourth and the final day the people eat the sweets and yomari as prasad and this marks the end of the festival / jubilee.
There’s a tradition of making symposium of yomari and putting to 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 times old children’s on their birthday (put a wreath of Yomari around their neck).

Santosh Shah presented a Newa dish Yomari in MasterChef, a competitive cooking show in UK.  His Yomari dumplings from Nepal were stuffed with chocolate, cashew nuts and chilli, topped with orange and cinnamon.