Tihar - The Experience - (Photos ||Videos || Timelapses)
CROW
Are you weirded out that I started my post saying Crow? You should be because this post is an avalanche of fun we have during my favorite festival Tihar or Deepawali, the festival of lights. And you must have high endurance to go through all of the post and countless photos because this is what this festival is about i.e. countless merriment.
Also if you are planning to travel to Nepal to experience culture and so much fun, make it around Tihar.
THE FIRST DAY - THE CROW DAY
Now the word Crow makes sense, right? Yes for the first day we celebrate Crow, considered messenger of death god, Yamaraj. So we worship them with sweets and food offerings to avoid death or sadness in general and to bring out luck. Besides, they are essential for restoring environmental balance by cleaning up the body remains of dead.
Look at this one not drenched in colors because we cannot actually worship them as they fly away when we come closer.
Now cave, you got weird again? Don't worry because that is what we do, drench, decorate and worship everything with colors and you will understand it later.
A small disclaimer before I continue with my ramblings. I have written what I have seen and believed this festival to be. So, I might deviate in some of my views of this festival and also might not cover how it is celebrated across the entire country. Also, my photos guide my story.
THE SECOND DAY - DOG DAY
This day, we celebrate dog for the companionship and we did the same with our dog Punte. You see, worshiping with colors is making sense now.
 Our dog punte |
 Some other neighbouring dog |
THE THIRD DAY - MAIN EVENT DAY - COW DAY - GODDESS LAXMI DAY
We start our third day by worshiping Cow early in the morning. Cow is considered the most holy animal in Hindu religion and we worship them for purity and prosperity. Everything from the cow's milk to cow dung and urine is considered pure here.(We sometimes take a sip of cow's urine to purify ourselves. My first experience was when was my grandfather told me I had to and I was like ready to puke all over! WyAAAk!)
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Cow worshipped with colors
Then, we start preparing good foods. This time we prepared only sel-roti but I have included other pictures from our previous Tihar celebrations below.
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Making of Sel Roti
Phool Roti
 Khajuri Roti |
 Lalmohan or Syrupy Doughnut |
Also, we spend entire day cleaning and decorating our house. We hang flower garlands all around the house and setup celebration lights for the night time.(light part will be clear somewhere down soon)
Also, depending on places we make rangoli(not exactly our culture but in recent years we had our influence from Indian culture). So here is a time-lapse of the making of rangoli and its so pleasing.
Oh cave, I just had a rangoli-gasm. Yeah, I understand.
Now, as the night arrives, we start our worshiping of the wealth goddess Laxmi by doing rituals and one of them is paving a pathway using a special red mud and cow dung from our border gate to the room for doing puja rituals and we light this handmade lights everywhere. And we also switch on the lights, and this is when the magic begins.
The rangoli we made now decorated with the handmade lights called Diyo
The pathway for goddess made using red mud and dung
The pathway ends in this puja place or the worshiping room
What the city looks like with the lights on
Then people of all age make groups and move from house to house singing festival songs. They are then welcomed by the house owners by offering them with foods they prepare, flowers and also money(Wow great way to be rich, right?). The first day is targeted for women groups and the phrase to say is "BhailiRam", REMEMBER this!
Its somehow like trick or treat but we already are in the year 2075 in Nepali calendar. So you can understand what came first. LOL.JK
THE THIRD DAY - OX DAY
Early morning we celebrate the male Cow because oxen is used for agriculture here(we use to make cart like thingy to plow field here but now all replaced by tractors) and oxen are essential for reproduction too.
I mentioned something about garlands that we put around our house for decorations, Remember? One who has lots of them in their own garden, they make it themselves. We were too busy to make all the garlands ourselves, but we did make some for the next day i.e. Brother's Day(OK this is too much to take - there is a day for brother too?).
So let me give a sneak preview of what our garden looks like around this time and refresh your memories with some flower shots.
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The night lights continues this day too and the day is for male groups to visit houses and the phrase to say is "Deusi - Re" while you are singing.
Also, I went around and shot some houses decorated with lights and glowing flowers all the around.
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And I have a video for you all from the top of the terrace to show how the environment around us looked like.
Almost all the houses are well lit with decorations. You can hear the traditional deusi song in the background and some firecrackers too
THE FINAL DAY- THE BROTHER'S DAY(BhaiTika)
On this day, brothers are celebrated and worshiped to strengthen the bond as brothers are considered the source of protection for sisters. Sisters offer brother with sweets and prepared food.
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This special styled tika is put on the forehead and brothers bow down to sisters and offer them money(Money sounds not so good but this one is considered special and called "Dakshina").
The lights continue for the last time this day and the festival ends. I love this festival so much and every Bhaitika I stay at my terrace and see the lights and feel sad that the Deepawali has ended.
I wanted to stay short but the fun and memories are too much to compromise on. Hope you enjoyed this.
I finally got around to reading after multiple distractions and it was worth the wait!
There are things that remind me of celebrations and rituals in other cultures too. The rangoli reminded me of a buddhist ritual where they create pictures with coloured sands, then sweep it up straight after. Some to do with letting go of possessing things. The lights reminded me of our Christmas lights. Some houses, even streets, go all out with their decorative lights over December. I'll have to do a tour with Izzy and her camera when they go up.
The money reminded of the Chinese New Year celebrations, when they gift money in red envelopes.
Thank you for sharing.
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Great observation.
Do you know that the birthplace of buddha is Nepal?
We have people here who are hindu-buddhist(they follow both culture but buddhist one more closely).Hindus here take buddha as one of their lords too. But we don't have much pure buddhists here only 20% or so.
We like to have fun and have celebrations in Christmas too around all shopping malls.
I am getting the hang of writing whatever I see nowadays and have started enjoying this. Lets see how it goes. But it hurts a little when not many people read your post that you put much effort into like this one.(But I guess this is what life is and I should get the hang of it too LOL). But hey, it was so much fun creating this post and I have to say I am getting creative(as I am mostly a very boring person).
Thank you so much.
I actually imagined Buddha was Tibetan. That's interesting that so few from his birthplace are pure Buddhist.
I know what you mean, it is disappointing when so much effort goes in and it doesn't get seen. I try to look at is as logging it down here, so it's recorded. Also, it's practise for our creative sides. ;)
It's funny you should say you're mostly boring, because that's what I often say of myself. As a quiet person, most people don't see the full me, so I'm pretty sure I come across as a bit boring! Lol!
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Congratz, your post has been resteemed, upvoted and… featured in The Daily Spotlights of November 11 2018! Check it out to see who nominated you…
Amazing, simply amazing! Thank you for sharing this post on my challenge.
I upvoted and resteemed this post before reading it as I was sure it is great and wanted to give it my full attention. What a high level of trust, right? 🙂
I had no idea that this festival is so great. I knew about it but not so many details. It was like I was there.
I will not mention the quality of the photos. It would be redundant since we all know how talented you are. And thank you for the flowers photos.
I'm so happy I suggested (to read "demanded" 😂) theis theme. It is true what they say: behind every great man is a greater woman.
I hope our dear @blacklux will understand now why I'm always thinking about kicking your lazy a$$. 😂
It was getting to long and I had to skim off some similar photos and details.
You already know why I put some flowers there ;)
But the real question is, did you have a rangoli-gasm? It was 2 and half hr process crammed into some minutes.
Hahaha...rangoli-gasm. That's a good one. Did you contribute to its creation or just filming?
And thank you for the flowers. 🙂
Not so much in the creation part but more as an emotional support LOL
I was sure about it. 🙂
I have been hoping to see this post from you! Fantastic photos and a wonderful explanation of your holiday and celebrations! What a beautiful post. I'm nominating this to @c-squared.
I remember you telling me that you had some fun experiencing deewali in your college years, how you loved the food and then I had told you we were a bit different in out celebrating ways. I wanted to mention you in this but wasn't sure if it was appropriate haha.
Thank god you saw it and enjoyed.
Extremely grateful for the c-squared nomination. I was kind of worried not much people would see it but then you gifted me with your kindness.
You are always welcome to tag me in your posts... I know you would never abuse it. This post deserved more attention, and I'm happy to help!
It was a great pleasure reading your article! I know nothing about these celebrations and I'm grateful to you for showing us your journey. Excellent job @cave-man, this article deserves my full support!
@roxy-cat, have you ever thought we're going to get to read such valuable and educational articles as entries? I haven't. This challenge was a great idea! We have to keep it going.
Yes, Erika. We must encourage people to share their stories season related.
My dear friend @cave-man is from a wonderful part of the world where there are so many amazing landscapes and customs. But it is hard for us to visit Nepal so he has to be our eyes and ears. 🙂
Thank you @erikah. I am very happy that you found it deserving and enjoyed it a lot.
Your dear friend @roxy-cat gave me some ideas and I used my free holiday time to shoot and create this story.
Congratulations! Your high-quality travel content was selected by @travelfeed curator @rimicane and earned you a reward, in form of a 100% upvote and a resteem. Your work really stands out! Your article now has a chance to get featured under the appropriate daily topic on our TravelFeed blog.
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Thanks @travelfeed. I was confused if I should use the tag on this. Very glad you found it appropriate @rimicane. It means a lot.
I found your beautiful story very much related to the travels and cultural experience one might go through once in the country! Imagine your post would inspire someone to travel for the Tihar! It is incredible what we can share here!
Thank you so much for your encouraging words.
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Did you got the brother's thingy too?
Yes.
But I am sad that you call me bro all the time and didn't send me one yourself.
You didn't gave me money either soooo....
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Thank you so much for this push. It is wonderful to see such lovely communities on steem.
that phool roti looks amazing, with the creases and folds!
What actually is it made of and what does it taste like?
Do you know, "phool" means flower here. It is basically white flour with added salt and sugar. Thus is crispy and salty and sweet also.
You must be good with travels as your alias says as you noticed this peculiar thing. LOL.