Diwali Festival



Yesterday was my first day off for the Diwali festival. Yesterday was based around celebrating  the goddess of wealth.   I began my day with the typical chiyaa and biscuits and appreciating the dog puja (blessing) which had been given the day before:

Then I went out with some of the men to spruce up our street for the festivities. First off, we started stringing up Tihaar lights on the houses (Tihaar lights, for those of you that do not know, are just like Christmas lights,but used by Nepali for Tihaar). Following that, we began to fix up the temples which separate our badminton court from our cricket court, changing the light bulbs for the next few evening’s festivities.

We spent the rest of the day eating and cleaning the houses and shops for the puja that was to be given that night.

I went to my host father’s office where we gave blessing and then spent the night walking up and down the streets with a band of little children, singing and dancing and blessing the businesses. I went to sleep to the sounds of the children's bands still going around house to house.

This is me with some of my father's coworkes.

The view from his office.

This morning I woke and took a walk to Julia’s house to pick up a sleeping bag because later in this week I am headed to one of my neighbor’s villages about 5 hours by bus to the north. I was told it snows there, so I am, for the first time in Nepal other than my trek and at school, bringing shoes … Truly excited for this opportunity.

I returned home to find this:

Today was cow puja day. Cows are regarded as gods here, and thus their meat is not eaten. This calf was paraded from house to house with each family blessing it, and for an extra blessing crawling under it!

As I said before, soon I will be headed out into the district where I undoubtedly will be the only Native English speaker in the village. All is well here.

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