“Ah yes. This is why I travel. To do less. Or more. Than just assume and kick aside. To feel the texture. To inhale deeply. To task my imagination. And to question… To wake up wondering.”
Wondering definitely takes up the better part of my days here in Nepal. I generally ask too many questions… I can’t help it. It’s particularly a problem in movie theaters. But my daily question count as of late is off the charts. Sometimes I feel like question asking is all I do. And it’s because everything is absolutely new – from the foods that I am eating, to the language I (am trying to) speak, down to the clothing that I wear. I couldn’t even properly feed myself when I got here. The meal of choice here is daal bhat (rice with sauce made of lentils), eaten by hand (as in without utensils) for breakfast and dinner. And my first Nepali meal was nothing short of a mess. But I’ve been practicing, and my family says my technique is improving. Which actually means that my food is making it to my mouth and I no longer consistently finish eating dead last. It’s a big victory.
So life has been brimming with surprises since I arrived. But of all of the “new” I have experienced in the last couple months, the festival season has provided some of my most new and surprising experiences.
As I have mentioned before, I arrived in Harisiddhi about a week before Dasain. Dasain is a two week festival that marks the beginning of about an approximately month long festival season. A week and a half after Dasain ends, Tihar (known as Diwali, Divali, and Deepavali in India) begins. Tihar is a five day long festival. A little bit about Tihar:
“Two of these days incorporate the Hindu festival Deepvali, where one day is celebrated for goddess Laxmi and the other one is celebrated to worship brothers for their long life. However, all ethnic groups celebrate this festival....The name Tihar means the festival of lights, where many candles are lit both inside and outside the houses to make it bright at night. The five-day festival is considered to be of great importance as it shows reverence to not just the humans and the Gods, but also to the animals like crow, cow and dog, who maintain an intense relationship with the humans.” (Wikipedia)
The month of celebration concluded yesterday, with a holiday primarily celebrated in the Terai. With all of the celebration there has been no shortage of things to do.
Dasain is a festival of family and community, so there were many family members to visit and people to meet. Also, delicious food to eat – like chura (beaten rice), aloo (potatoes), buffalo meat, chunna (chick peas), saag (spinach), and dahi (deliciously delicious yogurt). Animal sacrifice is of great importance this festival. Across Nepal, the sacrifice of goats is common. In my community, it is also tradition to sacrifice buffalos, sheep, and ducks. The entire village gathers to witness the sacrifices… which meant that I would gather, too.
Much to my family’s amusement, I was completely nervous. At the prospect of attending the sacrifices, I promptly realized that I’d never seen an animal killed. Considering that I’ve eaten meat all of my life this seemed a bit inappropriate. But I was also afraid that I would, I don’t know, fall over watching someone cut off a buffalo’s head with a sword for the first time. But I did attend, did not faint, and came to understand the history and tradition of my village a bit better through the experience.
Tihar felt a bit more familiar. As the festival of lights, every house was covered in twinkling strands of Christmas lights. The lights at my home even had an attached musical box (which just so happened to play Jingle Bells and Away in a Manger). I went door to door with my students playing Dheusi Bhailo. It is a lot like Christmas caroling; children go door to door singing and dancing until the owners of the home give them food and money. I was even coerced into doing a bit of dancing, which was a lot of fun. And firecrackers and fire works light the sky for five days.
As the festival season concludes, I am sure I will settle into a routine. There won't be new food to try, animal sacrificing to witness, or the constant explosion of fireworks across the sky to grab my attention, and to shake up my world view, on a daily basis. But still, I have no doubt that my world view will continue to be challenged, to change, to grow. Every day, there will be more "new" to explore and questions to answer. Every day, I will continue to wake up wondering.
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