Tihar: Festival of Lights

October in Kathmandu is holiday time. Mega holiday time. Comparable to December in Canada, when Christmas bombards its way into our lives, closely followed by New Year's celebrations, leaving us wrung out and tired by January.

Dog with Tikka and garland

In Nepal, Dashain (pronounced Dassai) is the first big holiday. Lasting around 15 days, it is a time for food, family, rituals and prayer. For us as non-Hindu foreigners, it is time when everything is closed, the streets are quiet and we are bored. This year, we took advantage of the holiday and went to Thailand for a week. But that story is for another post.

A few weeks after Dashain comes Tihar, the festival of lights. It is similar to the bigger Indian holiday, Diwali. Tihar is my favourite Nepali holiday as people decorate their homes, give blessings to a mix of creatures, and mostly come out of their homes to celebrate, making it much easier to participate in as foreigners.

Our rangoli leading to our home

The first 3 days of the festival are dedicated to animals: day 1 for the crow, day 2 for the dog and day 3 for the cow. On the dog day, you can see the numerous neighbourhood and street dogs feasting well and marked with a red tikka on the forehead and a marigold garland around their necks. ! Unfortunately this year I didn't get any photos but I managed to find an appropriate one online.

Our gates decorated with marigold garlands

People decorate their homes for Tihar, putting lights (similar to christmas lights) on their homes and decorating doorways with marigold garlands and rangoli - colourful patterns made of brightly coloured powders that welcome the deities. Wanting to be part of the celebrations and make a god impression in our new neighbourhood, we also had our Didis help us decorate our home for Tihar, and got our very own rangoli, welcoming the gods into our home!

Making a rangoli in Khokana Durbar Square, a village nearby

We also made sure to visit Patan Durbar Square - the town square - in the afternoon to see the decorations and festivities. Una enjoyed the people watching!

U watching the world go by in Patan Durbar Square

Selling colourful powders for making rangoli

In the evening, children (and sometimes adults I was told but haven't experienced) visit homes and sing and dance for a little bit of money. We had two groups of neighbourhood kids come, dressed in their finery, and give us performances. The pictures don't do them justice as they sang and danced and one even gave a little introduction speech. !

Happy Tihar!