Oh Tihar, how I do love thee!

Dear all,

(Sorry, this one’s gotten old. I wrote awhile ago, but I’ve only just had the time to post it!)

Whew! What a day! Today was Bai Tika, my absolute favorite Nepali holiday. And as expected, it was an absolute blast. I went to the home of one of my many older brothers, though not the one I usually write about, early this morning, and I stayed there for most of the day. The morning felt terribly long though, because sisters are supposed to fast until they’ve given their brothers the tika blessing. The entire family didn’t gather until sometime around one, so until then the girls only had a few cups of tea and an apple and banana each. I was surprised by how hungry I was, especially considering how often we fast here, and how little I normally eat anyway, but I was starving all the same. Luckily, there was a lot of family I hadn’t seen in a long time, so the fun of meeting up with everyone kept me distracted.
When everyone had finally gathered, we all went up to the roof, where we gave our blessings to our brothers, and they, in turn, blessed each of us.



The blessing consists of multiple parts. First, all of the sisters walk around our brothers three times in a large circle, holding onto each other’s clothes as we go. The oldest sister goes first, and sprinkles water on the ground as she goes. Then we each sat in front of one of our brothers and painted the tika on their foreheads. Usually, tika is a mixture of red powder and rice which is applied to the forehead, but for Tihar, we use a special, (and prettier) tika. We first make one long white line on the forehead using white flour and water. Then we make a series of colorful dots on top of the white line. You can see this in the tihar pictures which are going up soon. After we give each brother this tika, we present them with a leaf plate overflowing with food, and we feed each of them a spoonful of yogurt. Once, we’ve fed them, the girls’ work is done.

While us girls are in charge of preparing an enormous feast for the boys, and of course, not eating any of it until much later in the day, the brothers are expected to give us gifts. And so this tihar, after receiving the same colorful tika, I was gifted two beautiful new kurtas. I’m wearing one in the pictures, and the other is so fancy it’s going to have to wait for a very special occasion. But between the gathering of family, the enormous amount of food, the lights, and of course, a gift or two, Bai tika is really the closest thing to Christmas we have here.

Of course, that’s not to say I don’t miss Christmas, but it does mean I really enjoy this time of year here in Nepal. And Didi and I have already started planning for next year’s Bai Tika, as it will be Buffalo’s first major holiday in the states, so we want to make sure he enjoys it. Speaking of Buffalo, he and I went to begin the marriage process last week. I’m also uploading, though incredibly slowly, pictures from our trips to the CDO office where marriages have to be registered. We now have to return their on Nov. 6th to complete the marriage process. But my new bedroom will be ready before that, so I’ll be moving to Buffalo’s house on Halloween. This means that my next blog post will probably come from my new home! Oh how exciting!

But I better get back to uploading all these photos. Mom has been complaining I’ve been neglecting you.

Missing you all!