Tihar

In Nepal, Tihar the Hindu Festival of Lights (Deepali, Deepawili, Dipawili) is a five day festival that varies according to the region.   It includes recognising the importance that animals play for humans (especially crows, dogs and cows) and culminates in a respectful ceremony, where a sister circles her brother with a ring of oil from a copper vase (because oil will never evaporate), puts a 7 colour tikka on her brother's forehead, and gives him a garland of colourful marigolds that will not fade for a month.  Altogether this signifies the strong relationship between brothers and sisters.  If a person does not have a brother or sister, they can join in with other relatives or friends. 

We watched this ceremony in a family restaurant, and it was full of fun.  There was also a ritualistic swapping of gifts.  It's all a bit like Christmas, really. (PS - I don't know how they make the tikka colours these days, but mine got very itchy and the red and purple took a while to get off.)

I missed the significance of crows.  They signal grief and loss to some Hindus, so recognising them means they will not come back too soon.  But on the Day of the Dog, we watched a street mutt being welcomed into a local restaurant.  He sat patiently at the doorway, allowed a garland around his neck and a red tikka on his forehead, THEN he ate.  It was almost silent.  I have seen a few dogs in the street.  The lie patiently, sleeping. People, even cars go around them.  They don't seem to be owned by anyone in particular, and they are not mangy. I have not seen snarling or fighting, but here you can hear them at night.

Yes, cows also roam they streets, but I have been told that they actually belong to someone.  They return home at night.  Although we are in a hotel area, there are still plots of land with crops and animal stalls.  Yesterday I saw goats.  One street back from Pokhara Lakeside, there are yards with cows. 

From early morning each day, children move along the street, singing and dancing, usually to Hindi tunes from a huge speaker. The little ones say something like, "hii -ya" over and over,not particularly tunefully. By early evening the groups changed to older people, with teenagers dancing in lines of two and three. These seemed choreographed, and although some were traditional Nepali, others were based on Hindi movies. The fourth night had at least three really big centres with parts of the road blocked. It was all very well organised but still seemed casual. The music was LOUD. One young man played a drunk leaping and twirling. He was an object of humour, and people seemed to know the song he was dancing to.

All along the streets, people put colourful patterns with coloured rice,sand, petals and fruit. I will add pictures later. Sometimes it was a bit hard to get past without treading on a pattern, and most we replaced each day. There were also incense sticks everywhere, but the fragrance is not the sandalwood smoke sensation I expected. Many are subtle and very pleasant.

Then final day is a bit of a slow start. Fr the first time the street were almost empty. Poor tourists with no home base- we had to struggle to find breakfast coffee. But by 3pm the music was back and laughter was everywhere again. Happy people enjoying themselves.