This past week there has been a festival throughout Nepal, called Tihar. Tihar is also known as Deepawli amongst Hindu families and there are specific days of the festival that are dedicated to different Gods. However, Tihar is celebrated by all ethnic groups here and it was fun for me to be able to join with my friends here.
According to the astrological calendar, Tihar was a little short this year, but it is normally a five day festival. On each day, people respect specific Gods and their own bodies, in addition to certain animals - crow, cow and dog.
Compared to the Dashain festival where much of the celebration took place within family homes, Tihar created a very festive atmosphere throughout Kathmandu. Right before the festival started, the streets were packed with people shopping for decorations and family gifts, and a market appeared of marigold wreaths, flowers and decorative colored powders. On Monday and Tuesday, I enjoyed strolling around New Road and Ason market just to see what everyone was buying.
According to the astrological calendar, Tihar was a little short this year, but it is normally a five day festival. On each day, people respect specific Gods and their own bodies, in addition to certain animals - crow, cow and dog.
Compared to the Dashain festival where much of the celebration took place within family homes, Tihar created a very festive atmosphere throughout Kathmandu. Right before the festival started, the streets were packed with people shopping for decorations and family gifts, and a market appeared of marigold wreaths, flowers and decorative colored powders. On Monday and Tuesday, I enjoyed strolling around New Road and Ason market just to see what everyone was buying.
My friend and I went to buy samosas for lunch at the Tip Top Samosa place, but discovered that it had temporarily been transformed into a sweet shop for Tihar! After a split second of hesitation, we decided to postpone lunch and just try different Nepali sweets instead. This is what I bought:
My favorite was actually the one on the top right, which had a pastry exterior, but we devoured them all.
Throughout Tihar, I ended up eating so many sweets. They were used throughout pooja (offerings or prayers) and were also a part of the meals that I ate.
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