Celebrate Tihar!!!!!!!!! Festival full of lights and colors

Tihar is one of the most celebrated festivals in Nepal. It is a five day long festival, which soon comes after Dashain held annually in October. It is a festival of lights, colors, money, gifts and appreciation of brothers and sisters

If you want to experience Nepal’s most celebrated festival of lights and color, you can think of planning your holiday in Nepal at the same time as the festival of Tihar.

Celebration of Tihar starts with Kaag puga(day to worship crow)followed by Kukur Tihar (day to worship dog) Gai puja or Laxmi puja (day to worship cow or goddess of wealth), Goru Tihar (day to worship Ox) and Bhai tika (appreciation day for brothers and sister or brother and sister puja). There are lots of stories behind why people celebrate Tihar. One of the famous stories behind the celebration of Tihar is related to Yama the god of death and his sister Yamuna. Yama had been staying away from his sister for a long time. His sister wanted to meet him so she asked various sources to visit him and ask him to give her a visit. She sent Crow, Dog, and Cow and at the end she went herself to see her brother. She worshipped him with tika and flowers, she put him five colored tika. Yamuna made a circle with mustard oil, Dubo Grass (Cynodon Dactylon) and put Makhmali Mala (Globe Amaranth) and asked Yamaraj not to go till the oil, Dubo Grass and the flower gets dry. Therefore, every sister worships her brother keeping him in the circle of mustard oil, putting mala (garland) of Makhmali flower and Dubo grass.

In Celebration of Tihar people clean their house and decorate it with different kinds of lights and color. Small circle is made in front of the main gate and decorated with colorful designs. Some people call it Rangoli. Designs of footsteps are painted from the main entrance to the Puja Kotha. These footsteps are believed to be the footsteps of goddess Lakshmi. There is a long tradition of going housed in the evening singing songs to ask for money and foods. Generally, girls and kids go out to neighbors sing traditional songs called Bhailo songs. The tradition is called “Bhailo” and songs are called Bhailini songs. 

So, we call the five days of ‘Tihar’ as ‘Yama Pancak’ means the five days of Yama Raj. On these five days we do everything possible for keeping Yama Raj happy, as Yama Raj is going to judge our vices and virtues after our death, and treats our souls accordingly.