Happy Dashain!!!

Happy Dashain!

Dashain is the longest and the most auspicious festival in the Hindu annual calendar, celebrated by Nepalese of all caste and creed throughout the country. The fifteen days of celebration occurs during the bright lunar fortnight ending on the day of the full moon. The goddess Durga in all her manifestations is worshiped with innumerable 'pujas', abundant offerings and thousands of animal sacrifices for the ritual holy bathing, thus drenching the goddess for days in blood.

It is a deep rooted tradition to do puja on vehicles. Every UN office in Nepal do this as well as it is very important to assure our safety on the road. The drivers would even refuse to work if puja was not performed annually on their cars.

This morning, WFP in Nepalgunj (my office) performed Puja. In the morning, all the staff gathered in the courtyard for this semi-formal ceremony. People brought trays of flowers, fruits, coconut and incense. After washing all the vehicules, they opened the hood and put 'Tika' at the front. (read below for tika description). They put some flowers and pieces of fruits on the motor and incense as well. We did not sacrifice an animal, only one coconut for each vehicle. The coconut was smashed on the ground and the juice sprinkled on every side of the car, clockwise. We did this for every UN trucks, UN motorbikes, staff's motorbikes and bicycles. We even performed Puja on the generator! (Due to frequent power cuts - about 5 times a day - it is absolutely necessary to have a generator to perform our work). I took lots of pictures of the entire ritual and will post them as soon as possible.

After the puja ritual, our eldest staff gave us the Tika (also known as tilaka). The tika is a blessing given by the eldest on the youngest ones. Some redish powder is mixed with water and with one finger, a dot is placed on the middle of the forehead.Tika may be worn on a daily basis or for special religious occasions only, depending on different customs. The tika is decorative and is also an identifying mark. Worn by a priest, or worshiper it shows which Hindu tradition he follows. In Nepal, it is made with a mixture of abir, a red powder, yoghurt, and grains of rice.

This year, Dashain festival coincides with Eid, the Muslim holiday celebrating the end of the holy month of Ramadan. As a result, this is A 4 DAY WEEKEND!!!!!! YEAh!! and today, we even get to leave at 3pm instead of 6pm! Thats awesome!

Everybody felt so sorry for me when I told them that I did not have plans for Dashain. To Nepali, it is like Christmas - they visit their family, even the ones living far away, they buy new clothes, they prepare special food and enjoy the festivities. Even poor people wont work during this period. The country is at rest.
To me, it didnt seem important as I just started work and I dont have friends or a house yet so it made no sense to take a holiday. And of course, it is not my festival so I dont feel like I am missing out on anything...

At last, I decided to make plans for the long weekend: I am going on a JUNGLE SAFARI! Yeah! 2 days and 3 nights in Royal Bardya National Park, including elephant tour to observe the wild animals (tigers, rhinos, crocodiles, wild elephants, deers, monkeys, birds, etc...), jungle walk and jeep ride. Food and accomodation and everything included for 230$ (US). Not bad. I am going with a UN colleague, the security coordinator at OHCHR. He's been living in Nepalgunj for 2 years! He's Portuguese originally from Cap Vert (Cape Verde).

I just visited a house today. I hope that they will accept my offer. Its a big villa near the office. It was recently built and its newly painted and very beautiful. I offered 200$ per month for the upper floor, furnished with AC and water included. The family who owns it live in Kathmandu and so they only come here for holiday. They wanted to keep the upper floor to themselves and rent me the lower floor but I offered more money for the top floor because it is more beautiful and there is no AC downstairs. In other words, it really is a two family house but since they only come on holiday, I will have the whole place to myself.

To be continued...