After 22 days of Dashain, the greatest festival of Hindus in Nepal, here comes yet another colorful five-day festival of Tihar. Tihar honours another goddess Laxmi, the goddess of wealth and prosperity. The day also marks the triumphant return of Lord Ram to his kingdom after having vanquished the demon king Ravana and rescuing his

consort Sita and completing 14 years of exile. On that day the over-joyous people cleaned up their homes and streets and the whole of Ayodhya was decorated with rows of earthen lamps to welcome him. Families get busy in cleansing every nook and corner of the house in preparation to welcome goddess Laxmi. They light tiny earthen oil lamps and place them all around the house. The flickering of the rows and rows of tiny oil lamps give the cities, towns and villages a fairy-tale look. This is the only Hindu festival which is celebrated on the Amavasya (the black night with no moon) day. The backdrop of the black night only enhances the beauty of the earthen oil lamps.

The celebrations begin with the adoration of crows and dogs. The crows are garlanded and the first portion of the meals prepared by the family is offered to her. The second is the Dog’s day when he is garlanded, given a red “Tika” on his forehead, worshiped and then given sumptuous meals. On the third day the cow is worshiped in the same manner as the dog on the second day. The third day of the five day festival is all important as on this day prayers are offered to Goddess Laxmi and the whole cities get filled up with the lights of tiny earthen lamps or candles after the Puja greetings are exchanged. The festival culminates with Bhai Tika, pray to Yama, the god of death, where every sister worships his brother and prays for his longevity and prosperity.

Rajesh Kumar Chaudhary,

Sarlahi

Alternatives

This is with reference to the news story “Come what may, Nepalis will not bow to any foreign power: Dahal” (THT, Nov. 8, Page 3). Political leaders like Prachanda including PM Oli have been publicly criticizing India’s undeclared trade embargo. This is not the right way to react. Aren’t there any diplomatic means to mend matters with India? We praise you from the bottom of the heart for delivering the constitution using Nepalis’ own conscience. It has been one-and-a-half month since supplies of daily essentials have been affected. The general people have already suffered much. The government decision to import petroleum products from China is praiseworthy as it will diversify the trade and reduce the over-dependency on a single country. But the trade relations with China must be made sustainable by developing necessary infrastructure like roads, customs office and petroleum depots. Till the date the people have been supporting the government despite the fact that they are suffering a lot due to acute shortages of petroleum products, cooking gas and other essential commodities including medicine.

Rebati Adhikari, via e-mail