Tihar and Newari New Year Pics

Tihar: Ma Puja (Celebration of "I", of oneself)

Tihar: Deusi Bhailo with 9th Grade

Me with the German volunteer and a few of the teachers at school

Newari New Year Celebrations

My neighbor wanted to take pictures too :)

Some of my sister's friends

On the Festival Season

One of my favorite travel bloggers, pen name Solbeam, recently posted an entry on her blog about the reason why she travels. I definitely suggest checking her work out in its entirety (after you finish reading here of course :) ), solbeam.com. But a quote from this post particularly resonated with me. It is as follows:

“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.

Addendum to: "Consumer Markets, Ganesh, and Why I Love Elephants"

Hattie isn't a common name anywhere, except maybe in US Southern history. And while I've always liked my name for its old family ties (I am named after my great grandmother) and its uniqueness (there are really never any "Hatties" to confuse me with), it still poses challenges. Introductions, especially, are problematic. In the States I have gotten everything from Patti to Katie to Haiti. In Tamil Nadu no one could figure out why, as a girl, I was given such a masculine name. My pronunciation of Hattie sounded, to them, like Harry. And I have found, like everywhere else, my name causes confusion in Nepal. But here, even anticipating that confusion, I can't help but smile before every introduction. The pronunciation of Hattie is almost identical to the Nepali pronunciation of Hathi, which just happens to mean elephant.

Though I cannot chalk it up to more than a grand coincidence, the fact that I happen to share the name of this awesome animal (the animal that just happens to be my favorite) feels a bit like something else. It feels like a small sign that things do have a funny way of working out. Which, true or not, is a nice feeling to have. 

Still, I have taken to going by "Eliza Miss" in the classroom. I thought that "Elephant Miss" would provide my fifth graders with just too much ammunition.

Wonderful

On my walk home from school today the sky was clear enough that, for the first time, I caught a glimpse of the distant Himalayan crests that tower over my village, over the valley. The icy peaks are breath taking, truly wonderful. I just cannot believe I live here.

Dasain Festivities

Dasain, Nepal's biggest festival, is a 15 day long event that began October 8th and lasted through October 22nd. About the festival: 


"The festival is a blend of Hindu Tantrik and animistic harvest festival traditions. On the first day, called Ghatasthapana, the "Dashain Ghar", or special worship room, is set up—this room is used to worship the Astha-Matrikas (the 8 tantrik Goddesses) as well as the Nava Durgas (the 9 Goddess Durga), to whom the festival is consecrated. Married women will say the mantras for the next fifteen days, and guard the goddesses. Barley is sowed on big earthern pots which have a coating of cow dung. These seeds will sprout in ten days. The sprouts, which symbolize a good harvest, will be decoratively placed on the heads of family members later on in the festival as a blessing." (Thanks wikipedia)


Here are a few pictures from the celebration!

Harisiddhi School decorated for the 9th grade class's Dasain production

My homestay sister, Rajjwala, making flower garlands

My homestay sister, Prajjwala, making traditional Dasain cakes

I helped with the garlands!

Visiting the village temples for puja (worship)

A ping! A giant bamboo swing traditionally built during Dasain for kids to play on.

Accompanying my family for puja

My homestay mom, Sarita Bhauju 

I really like this picture!

The whole family

Puja at home

 For safe travels

Dasain traditions

I have more pictures of events at the village temple in the evening, but they aren't on my computer at the moment. So they will be coming soon!