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Nepal's
Religious Festivals |
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![Festivals in Nepal](../../../images/title/np/npfesttit01.jpg) |
Nepal's
Religious Festivals
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Tihar
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Tihar
(Dipawali) festival, the second greatest festival of the Hindus after Dashain,
the Kathmanduites are busy in shopping. |
The
shopping areas in the heart of Capital such as Ason, Indrachowk and New
Road look busier these days as more people are thronging these places for
the Tiharfestival shopping flower garlands, candles, electric lights,
dry fruits, sweets, ghee and oil, among host of other items. The two biggest
festivals, Dashain and Tihar fall in this month.
As
new clothes are associated with Dashain, delicious food, colourful candles
and home decoration are synonymous to Tihar or Deepawali. People believe
that by decorating their houses, they can attract Laxmi (Goddess of Wealth)
towards them and they will never be short of money in life.
Among
the dry fruits wallnut, cashew, almond, raisin, cardamom, dry coconut and
chhoda are sold in large quantities. Among them, wallnuts are considered
to be the most essential dry fruit required for the Bhai Puja (brother
worship). Besides big shops and whole sellers situated at Indrachowk and
Ason, small street vendors in the areas also make good money during Tihar.
Tihar
is also known as the festival of light. In Tiharpeople decorate their
houses with electric light, oil lamp and candles to attract the Goddess
of Wealth Laxmi. Nowadays, instead of oil lamps people have started using
electric light or candles. Almost all the shops look bright and electric
lights, garlands, colourful papers and craft papers areused to decorate
the shops.
There
is also a tradition of buying new kitchenware and/or gold items to worship Goddess Laxmi during Tihar. The most important part of the festival is
sweets, which are eaten as prasad of Goddess Laxmi. Some prefer to buy
ready-made sweets from shops situated in every nookand corner of the Capital
city. Some people prefer to make sweets in their own houses. Sweet shops
also try their level best to attract customers to their shops by displaying
the sweets of various shapes and sizes.
Laxmi
puja (worship) - The day to worship Goddess of Prosperity
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Families
nation-wide celebrated Laxmi puja by worshipping Laxmi the goddess of wealth
on the second day of Tihar. The burst of firecrackers in the night sent
scared dogs scurrying under the cover of cots. Firecrackers were bursting
in the city's night sky aplenty despite a ritual official ban on
them.
There were frequent power failures in the city in the evening as
the Nepal Electricity Authority could not cope with the additional demand
for electricity to light homes and commercial establishments. Florists
were doing brisk business selling marigold and makhmali garlands. The city
was bright, colourful and noisy. Groups went around the town singing songs
asking forbhailo in the evening. The dogs had their day on the third day.
People worshipped and fed their pets or neighbour's dogs on the day kukkur
or dog tihar.
Goddess
Laxmi who is the symbol of wealth and prosperity. People decorate their
houses, especially doors and windows, with marigold garlands and clean
up their homes before they begin worshipping the Goddess in the evening.
The flower garlands, combined with typical Nepali oil lamps and candles,
can be seen in every house and shop throughout the Kingdom, as these are
the ways to beautify the houses to welcome the Goddess.
The proper worshipping
of Goddess Laxmi will bring prosperity and happiness in people's lives.
People involved in the financial sector and businesses celebrate this occasion
with more enthusiasm as this particular worshipping of the Goddess is related
to money. This is why shops and other financial and business institutions
are highly decorated with flowers, oil lamps, candles and even electric
lights.
Many people even paint their houses during this time.People start
celebrating Laxmi Puja in the evening and continue till late night as they
believe Goddess Laxmi travel only at midnight. There is also a belief that
the Goddess will enter those houses, which are clean and bright.Many women
members in a family take a fast for the whole day tomorrow to prepare for
the puja in the evening, after which only they eat.
Women in the family
get-together the whole day tomorrow and prepare different types of typical
Nepali sweets like Sel, Puri and Anarasa, among others. These are later
offered to the Goddess during her worship. In 2001, three different events
of Tihar - Kukur Tihar (worship of dog), Gai Tihar (worship of cow) and
Laxmi Puja have fallen on the same day .
Gai
puja is celebrated on the third of Tihar by worshipping the cow. Cows were
garlanded and fed in the morning. Cows are considered sacred and contribute
to the economy.
The
Newar community celebrated Mha Puja Thursday night. The worship of the
soul is a peculiarity of the community. Groups went around the city in
the evening playing dheusi. The 4th day is Bhai tika.
With
Bhai Tika, the festival of lights concludes |
With
the finish of Bhai Tika (Brother's Day) , the last day of the Tihar festival,
the entire festive season has come to an end. The year 2001's two
main festivals Vijaya Dashami and Dipawali occurred in the month of Kartik
(from mid October to mid November) and all Hindus throughout the world
observed the festivals with joy and fun.
Bhai
Tika is the last day of the five-day festival Tihar, which was observed
by brothers and sisters. The day of brothers and sisters - Bhai Tika is
also known as Yamapanchak and Kija Puja. On this day sisters offer their
brothers clean and sacred place to sit down andencircle the place with
pure water and mustard oil so as not to allow evil things in. Sisters put
on colourful tika on the forehead of their brothers and garland them with
makhamali flowers praying the Almighty to protect their brothers from all
sorts of evils.
During the worship, sisters also offer their brothers delicious
food items and sweets like sel roti, fruit, dry fruit and many more. Sisters
break the hard walnut with one hit to avoid all sorts of problems that
may fall on their brothers in future. With this the Bhai puja ends.
For
Bhai puja, which literally means the worship of brothers, sisters invite
their brothers to their homes or vice versa some days ahead - within four-days
from the beginning of Yama Panchak till Govardhan puja.
The
legend
A
girl's brother was very ill and Yamaraj (God of Death) came to take his
soul. The girl pleaded Yamaraj not to take her brother until she finished
her puja to her brother. After finishing the puja (worship), Yamaraj returned
to take her brother. She again pleaded not to take him until the oil dried,
the makhamali flower withe red and the walnuts decayed ,which sheused during
her puja.
Yamaraj promised that he would fulfil her wish. However, the
oil did not dry up in the whole year, makhamali flower did not wither at
all and the walnut did not show any signs of decay. On seeing this Yamaraj
became very happy with her for her love towards her brother and blessed
her with her brother's long life and prosperity.
Since
that day sisters have come on praying for their brother's longevity and
prosperity offering them with makhamali flower's garland and brothers also
made it the tradition to offer their sisters with special gifts. Those without
brothers or sisters offer puja at Bal Gopal temple situated in the centre
of Ranipokhari in the centre of the capital. On the same occasion, Anjali
Devi Maskey offers holy tika to 250 brothers, without any sisters, collectively
at the temple of Lord Gorakhnath in Kasthamandap.
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