Happy Dashain!

This week sees the start of Dashain festival in Nepal. Dashain is the biggest Hindu festival held annualy in Nepal celebrated by the whole country. The fifteen day celebration is timed so that it ends on the day of the full moon. 

A traditional Dashain swing that gets put up through the festival. 

Dashain commemorates a great victory of the gods over a wicked demons. One of the victory stories told is the Ramayan, where the lord Ram slaughtered Ravana, the fiendish king of demons. It is said that lord Ram was successful in the battle only when goddess Durga was evoked. The main celebration glorifies the triumph of good over evil. Dashain is celebrated with great rejoice, and goddess Durga is worshiped throughout the kingdom as the divine mother goddess.

In preparation for Dashain, every household is cleaned and beautifuly decorated (similar to Christmas celebrations in England) and painted to invite the mother goddess in so that she can bless the house with good fortune. Locals seek out gifts for their loved ones and prepared feasts of goat meat, chicken and water buffalo ('buff'). 

The first day of Dashain is called Ghatasthapana, which literally means pot establishing. On this day the kalash, (holy water vessel) symbolising goddess Durga is placed in the prayer room. The kalash is filled with holy water and covered with cowdung on to which seeds are sown. A small rectangular sand block is made and the kalash is put in the centre. The surrounding bed of sand is also seeded with grains. The ghatasthapana ritual is performed at a certain auspicious moment determined by the astrologers. At that particular moment the priest intones a welcome, requesting goddess Durga to bless the vessel with her presence.

The room where the kalash is established is called 'Dashain Ghar'.

As days passes by regular rituals are observed till the seventh day. The seventh day is called 'Fulpati'. 

The eighth day is called 'Kal Ratri', the dark night. Hundreds of goats, sheep and buffaloes are sacrificed at the mother goddess temples. The sacrifice continues till dawn. While the puja is being carried out great feasts are held in the homes of common people where large amount of meat are consumed.

At my Nepali family home celebrating Dashain with a feast!

The ninth day is called Nawami: Temples of mother goddess are filled with people from dawn till dusk. Animals mostly black buffaloes are slaughtered to honour Durga the goddess of victory and might and to seek her blessing. Military bands play war tunes, guns boom and officers with beautifully decorated medals in full uniform stand there. When the function ends the courtyard is filled ankle deep with blood. On this very day the god Vishwa Karma, the God of creativity is also worshiped. All factories, vehicles, any machinery instruments and anything from which we make a living are worshiped. We also give sacrifices to all moving machinery like cars, aeroplanes, trucks etc. to get the blessing from goddess Durga for protection for vehicles and their occupants against accidents during the year

The tenth day is the Dashami: On this day we take tika and jamara from our elders and receive their blessing. We visit our elders in their home and get tika from them while our younger ones come to our home to receive blessing from us. The importance of Dasain also lies in the fact that on this day family members from far off and distant relatives come for a visit as well as to receive tika from the head of the family. This function continues for four days. After four days of rushing around and meeting your relatives Dashain ends on the full moon day, the fifteenth day. In the last day people stay at home and rest.

Tika for all

For the next two weeks, all our schools will be on holiday so we will be spending our time working at the Street Children'sCentre and the Asha Foundation as well as doing some maintenance work redecorating some of the Government schools that we work for. We will also be celebrating Dashain with some of our local friends, enjoying the parties, feasts and blessings. 

Happy Dashain everybody, enjoy!

For more information on our work in Nepal and how to join our team, look at our website or contact Gemma in the UK on 01242 250 901.  If you would like to help, but don't have the time to come in person right now, you can always make a donation to the PoD Charity and help fund our work here.