Festive Season in Nepal
We had a great Dashain and Tihar. If you are wondering ‘What???’. Ok, Dashain and Tihar are the national festival of Nepal 16 days apart. Dashain is a bit longer- 7 days, and Tihar a bit shorter at 3 days (actually both festivals are bit longer at 10 and 5 days respectively but the government holidays start late on both occasions). So, the holidays are only 10 days- that’s short.
But wait!!!.
First, you should know about the dire situations of Nepal road and Transportation, especially to remote areas. Major cities like Pokhara and Kathmandu have improving road links. However, most of Patasi’s Didis' and Dais’ live in remote part of Nepal- they do have road but the ones you would not like to drive. This results in most working class people in Kathmandu not coming back to work during this period and most offices and factories, with less worker (People living in Kathmandu), cannot work efficiently for around 20-25 days.
During my time in Shanghai, I remember some people saying the life in Nepal is quite slow. But as a young scholarship student (Chinese Government Scholarship) studying in one of the most reputed University in China and. in a way, representing my culture, my language, my country- I had hard time explaining. It is because of the situation.
Luckily, I don’t need to think about that anymore. Nepal is developing and has taken a correct path towards bettering many lives.
Ok, I went off the topic over there. Anyways, Dashain is the more important of two. During Dashain Nepalese go visit the relayives (as many as possible). The elders offer food and blessing to the youngers and the youngers show their respect in return. It is truly a unique festival. I remember, as a youngster, I always saw one new face in my house every dashain and some many other faces I would only see during dashain. Nevertheless, It brought the entire country together- even the politicians.
Tihar, on the other hand, is tectonically 5 days longer but the official holidays only start on the third day. Tihar shares close relationship with Dipawali celebrated in India. In terms of worshiping certain god in certain day it is almost the same but the Nepali festival also worships animal. You might have heard that Nepali people worship dog once a year. Moreover, Tihar is also known as festival of lights as almost all houses are decorated in colorful lights and, at the night, also light up some firecrackers (very less firecrackers these days).
So thats about it for this weeks. I will make sure i write more about these festivals again. Just don’t FORGET to checkout some photos from the festival in Patasi’s Blog in the coming week.