Tihar



Tihar is a grand celebration basically centered around the victory of good over evil. It is praised as a holiday for all castes and religions and celebrated throughout Nepal. Many people told me that even though Tihar is shorter than Dashain it is their favorite holiday of the year.

 

There is lots to do in terms of decorating the house. Garlands are made and draped on every window and every door. A grand mandala or rangoli is put on the ground outside the house and the path leads all the way to the space inside the home where puja, worship, takes place.



The mandala or rangoli that we created out of tika
powder on the ground in front of the house.

Making the mandala.











A marigold garland along the door frame.



 

For two nights, all the houses are lit up and groups of kids come around asking for money and gifts. It's like the strange offspring of Christmas and Halloween.

Some electric lights and a lot of candles.

These kids showed off by bringing a guitar. Most groups are just 3-8 children singing/chanting.

 

During the day, kids enjoy giant swings built from rope and bamboo. And by kids I mean kids of all ages. Not only did my host siblings and I enjoy it, but two women who I would guess were in their 50's were waiting in line to take a turn after us! **Correction: giant swings, called pings, are actually constructed for Dashain not Tihar. In my family it just so happened that we didn't find one during Dashain and later happened upon a leftover one.**


 





The guy in the picture is standing on the swing, he's just got his legs bent to build more momentum.

Worship is directed towards certain things on certain days. There were days of puja for dogs, and crows, cows. My family doesn't have a dog so one of the neighbors brought their dog over and we put a garland and tika on it. There was some confusion regarding the astronomical date for the cow puja. I ended up not being witness to the event because my host mom went and did it early one morning somewhere else since our family does not have a cow.

 

 

It took some convincing (read bribery with food) for the dog to wear the garland.

And the cow is someone else's that I saw in a field on the way to the giant swing.

 

 Using thin twigs and two leaves little "boats" are made. This is what holds the offering during puja.

I asked my host mom to teach me how to make them. It's tricky business!

 

 

On the last day we celebrated brothers. This involved a particular kind of tika with seven colors; normally there is just red or yellow. Plus lots of gifts --mostly food-- from sisters to their brothers! (But then the brothers have to give money to the sisters.)

 

 

**Sorry for the insane photo layout and lack of captions at the end. Sometimes I love blogger and sometimes the way this website handles images makes me want to swear off ever trying to post pictures. But don't worry, I promise not to resort to that! You'll just have to tolerate less than aesthetically pleasing combinations of photos.