Tihar

Tihar

Barbara arrived a day or two before Thiar started; the start day is open to some speculation. She is a trustee for ManishaUk and a retired secondary school teacher, although she does do supply work to fund her trips here, she has been three times so far. It is good to have her here, as I have someone English to talk to and another teacher with a lot of experience. Also, she brought a hell of a lot of resources for schools and I am doing some teacher training next week, so we are planning it and delivering it together.

Tishar, or divali, or the festival of lights, is similar to Christmas in many ways. All the buildings are covered in fairy lights (some here are still up a week later), family and friends get together to eat and drink a lot!, there is also a fair bit of waiting around for people in the mornings, and there is also a form of carollers. They have these groups, normally 30-40 strong, who travel from home to home (with their own sound system), singing songs and dancing for 1-3 hours and get money at the end. I also did some more Nepali guitar playing, the Sorangee guy came only with a drummer friend and sang some songs, which i joined in with. If you’re interested, all that is needed for Nepali guitar playing is G, A, Am, D, F and occasionally E. Well the food, on the main day there was a lot of food, I had 7 different roties here (different breads ranging from doughnut like things, to flaky pastry, to what can only be described as a crumpet topped with a handful of baked sugar), then went to another home two hours later and was presented with 16 roties and plates of veg and seeds. I managed 6 of them before I was almost sick, I couldn’t even drink I was so full. However, after an hour motorbike ride in the dark I felt a lot better.

So, Tihar is generally agreed to be four days, but can last up to seven. The first is about worshiping crows, then it’s all about dogs and the god Luxmi, the third day is worshiping cows and yourself and the last day is celebrating brothers and sisters (the sisters give the brother some tika and the brothers give them a fancy present, a bit one sided I think).

Also during the festival I bought a crispy looking triangle thing, it was battered curry paste sandwich. If you see any nice looking triangle things avoid them. Get a somosa or pakora instead.