Introduction to the Dashain Festivals in Nepal

Dashain (7-17 Oct):

Dashain, the longest and most favorite festival right after the monsoon (October). For many Nepalese, Dashain is a season to dress and eat well (specially goat's meat is considered a favorite dish) According to the legend, the bloodthirsty Goddess, Durga conquered evils on the Dashain day. Huge amount of animal scarifies take place during the festival in temples and in home to please the Goddess Durga. The final day of the festival is known as `Tika', a day on which the elder ones give `Tika' to the younger ones and to other relatives who come for their blessings.

Tihar (3-6 Nov):

Tihar or Dipawali or Laxmi Puja is a five days festival of worshiping to different animals such as crow, dog, and cow. The most important day of the festival is Laxmi Puja. Laxmi being the Goddess of wealth is worshiped in every households by means of Puja, Decoration and lights. On this day the entire village, town, city, and the nation becomes an illumination of lights. Fireworks and crackers from individual households add joys and excitements to the festival.  On the final day, sisters give tika, and mala to brothers along with wishes for long life and prosperity. Brothers give gifts or money to the sisters. Those without a sister or brother join the family of relatives or friends for tika. Sisters pray for their brothers long life to the Hindu God Yama, the God of Death.

DASHAIN

First of all Namaste to all the readers of kid’s eyes. THANK YOU for all your help and for your generosity towards us. Also thank you very much to Fredric sir because you have helped Nicole Miss and to Jeeten sir in forming NAG.

So the article I am going to write is about Dashain. Dashain is like the Hindu x-mass. We have Holidays for one month. It falls in the month of mid September to October. There are different sayings why we celebrate Dashain. One of the reasons of celebrating Dashain is …….

Once in the ages of the Gods, War broke out between Lord Ram and the Asur DEVIL King Rawan.Rawan had stolen Ram’s wife. After ten days of war, lord ram was able to slay down Rawan and take his wife back to his palace. Time has changed we step towards modernization, but history hasn’t changed yet. Books and epic has been still keeping the incident as fresh as before.

Back at NAG, we can feel the approaching of Dashain in the air, preparing for Dashain, lots of shopping and planning what we are going to do at Dashain. Our first plan was, now we have a bus, to go for a picnic. But the idea was rejected because lots of places have been affected by the Maoist problem so we had to get rid of the Picnic idea. Almost 65% of the student went home this time. The beginning of the holidays was boring, but I pulled myself together. There were movies and I read novels. I went shopping from time to time to buy meat and other things. Thanks to Christina miss I learn to play skateboard. Now I know how to play after falling down many times. There was special food menu and all the staff that were staying at NAG cooked a special dish. Nicole miss prepared carrot cake, Christina miss and Jeeten Sir made a barbecue, Aunty A made pickle, Aunty B made Shall roti and Cook dai and his wife made the rice, dal and curry.

On the day of tika (this is a very important day, elders give us blessings) Christina miss was wearing a sari she looks like Nepali women and on other side was my mother (Aunty B) putting tika to all the kids of nag.

The Barbecue night was excellent. Around 5oclock we started the fire, my job was to chop wood and put it on the fire, all the kids were around the fire. It was cold night.

How fast Holidays ended and how we enjoyed doing all the different things. For more Dashai fun we have to wait till next year. 

Written by Bashanta Basniet

In class 8

TRIP TO ZOO

Before we boarded the bus to go to the zoo, we divided ourselves into four groups. Christina miss, Nicole miss, C.B. sir and Surjay brother were our leaders and each one of them had five children in their group. I was in Nicole miss’s group with Manju. After we entered the zoo all of us went through different directions with their groups. We got pocket money and we saw deer, tigers, elephants, rhinos and other animals and birds like ostrich, parrots etc. We played on a boat also. We did not see the hippo but the other groups did because the hippo did not come out of its home. After that we went for an elephant-ride. The elephant was old and weak. After that, we played funny temple with other children. The small kids also played the mini-train ride. Then, we came out of the zoo and had ice creams. After that, we were again in the bus and went back to NAG.

Written by Rupa Tamang

Is in class 5

BHALLI

          Namaste, first let me introduce myself I am Manju Basnet and I stayed here in the Dashain Holidays. Many of the students went home this time. We were trying to give a special entertainment to all who were staying here. Me and eight other girls were practicing dance two weeks before the bhalli festival. It was a special night. It was said that Bali the king of Asur  (devil) was very kind. He used to give the poor and needy what they needed. But the god of heaven didn’t like what he was doing, because he should not do good deeds because they will occupy the place in heaven.

          Before the day of Bhalli Rupa, Rajkumar and me, went to give away the cards. It is a tradition, saying that we will come the peoples house at night to play Bhalli to sing and dance.

          On the day of Bhalli, we ate dinner at 6pm we were ready to go, but some of the girls were not ready. Nicole miss told us that we should come back at 9:30 P. That night (festival of Lights) the electricity went off so we had to buy batteries but we were late to go so we bought the cheap batteries. Bashanta Dai and Tsewang Dai went to get the batteries, but they didn’t come back at last they came looking tired without any batteries.

Even then we went to the next-door houses, at first they were not in a mood of watching us when we reminded them of our card they let us in and we played two Hindi songs and three nepali songs.

At the end of the last dance they brought us the Prasad (Sweets), on a big plate coloured with fruits, flowers, tika and money. Before picking up we sang the traditional song and after picking up the Prasad we blessed the house, as it is common on Bhalli. When we came back it was already 9 pm, Christina miss told us not to go and play at another house. But we had to go because we had already given the card in the afternoon and they would feel very sad.

We went to play at the house and at that time it was already 10:30pm. We went straight to bed when we came back. In the morning Basanta Dai and Tsewang Dai got scolding from Miss Nicole because we come home late. In the evening we played Bhallii at NAG. After dancing we divided our money that we earned, each of us got 200 Rupees. This is how we celebrate our Bhalli.  

Written by Manju Basniet

Is in class 5

The Story of NAG’s SECURITY GUARD

BIOGRAPHY OF MY FATHER

My father’s name is Buddha Ratna Shakya. He was born at ‘Dharan’, in Koshi zone in 1956. He studied only till class five, as his parents were very poor. His job was to dig for petrol, exploding small bombs. After that, he had to leave that job as he got married to Bimala Shakya, my mother. They opened a small restaurant for tea and snacks in Tulsipur. Then I was born in a village called Ghorahi. After that, my brother, Man Kumar was born there and we shifted to Pokhara after some years. There we lived happily until one day my mother ran away from home. The previous night, my father and mother had had a fight and so she ran away. Then, we went to my mother’s home and asked if she was there, but instead of helping us, my grandmother scolded my father for losing her daughter and told us to leave them forever. My father had two brothers but they also refused to help us. He also had a sister but she had already died the previous day of our arrival. So, there we were without our big family. Then, we decided to leave for Nepalgunj in search of my mother. We stayed there for a year without success, and then decided to look for her in Lumbini, a well-known place where the Buddha was born. There too, we did not find her but my father found a job as a security guard in a Buddhist monastery. We stayed there until one day a man who had come from Kathmandu said that a woman, as my father had described, was in Kathmandu selling black tickets in a cinema hall called ‘Ranjana Hall’. Then, we left for Kathmandu, the capital city of Nepal. In Kathmandu, we stayed at Pashupatinath temple sleeping in the ruin temples.

One day, my father did not find me. He came looking for me in CWIN (Child Workers In Nepal), where orphans are brought for the basic needs and the rights of children. I was in CWIN because the CWIN-people came to pashupatinath and took me and some street kids with them. They seemed nice to me and I was right. After that, my brother was also kept there. After a year, I was brought to NAG and my father also came there looking for me and then went. After that, my brother was also came to NAG. My father came to visit us then he found some work in Nepalgunj. There, he married a Thakali woman and left her as she drank alcohol and smoked which my father hated very much. He was suffering from tuberculosis because of that bad habit. After that, tuberculosis again started to spread for a second time throughout his body and so he went to a doctor. The doctor told him that he had to go to Kathmandu for the treatment. But, my father was running out of money. He then came Kathmandu to have a last look at us as he had given up the hope for being cured. But he was wrong, as soon as Hemraj and Bashanta and I knew about the sickness my father was suffering from, we reported it to Jeeten sir and Nicole miss and my father was taken to the hospital. He had to have his medicines for 8 months, which NAG paid. Now, he is fine and working at NAG with his two sons (his entire family of three members).

Written by Rajkumar Shakya

Is in class 8

TRIP TO DRAGONWORLD

At the time of the Dashain Holidays, on Thursday, we all went to Dragon world (an amusement park). We went there by bus. When the bus stopped near Dragon world, we saw a big mouth of a dragon and its tail. We played many games and enjoyed it a lot. It was fantastic. We had to buy tickets to enter inside and when we got in there were games everywhere and I felt so excited. It was my first time I had seen so many games. I played ‘Luck-lottery’ and won a beautiful rose with a little ‘happy birthday’ written on it. I saw a huge swing, which went round and round, it was called a Rollercoaster. I saw many of my friends playing that game and so I also played it. At first, I was very scared but soon afterwards, I was enjoying it as if I had played it before. I also played Flying Saucer, a game of cars, which used to go round and round. There was also a mini-train and I played it too. It had a face of a dragon at the front and its tail at the back. When it started going up, the speed decreased but when it came down it came very fast. I also played a water-boat. When it went in the middle, the fishes jumped out of the water and it was also very fantastic. I played Bumper-Car, which was run by electricity and there was no chance of any accidents. After that we had some snacks. We prepared to go back to NAG and entered the bus and came back. I enjoyed my Dashain holiday very much.

Written by Sharmila Tamang

Is in class 5

Get to know 5 NAGers from class 8

MY SPONSOR VISIT

My sponsor came to NAG in between Dashain and Tihar Holidays. At first they visited Nicole Miss and Jeeten Sir then they called me and I came to meet them. They gave me gifts (sweater, cap, perfume and a nice bracelet), which were brought from France. My sponsor asked Nicole Miss if they could take me out. Nicole Miss let me go with them, but she said to come back before 5pm. I was so happy to go out with my sponsor and to get to know them. I went to change my clothes. First they took me to meet their friends and afterwards we went to Patan together. In Patan we visited many temples and other things. At that time my sponsor vomited. Then we went to a Restaurant and had lunch and talked together. After that we went shopping. My sponsor asked me to choose what I would like. I choose a pant, t-shirt and shoes. After my sponsor bought the clothes for me and they took some photo of us. I said thank you very much, then we came back to NAG. My sponsor went back to the hotel. When I came back to NAG I went straight away up to Nicole miss and Jeeten Sir to show my shopping bag. When they saw my shopping bag they said it was very nice. My sponsor stayed 3 or 4 days. They came back to our hostel to say good-bye to everybody. I am very lucky that my sponsor came to visit me. Many other children are not that lucky.

Written by Nirmala Tamang

Is in Class 5

TRUE FRIENDS   True friends are those Who gives us joy forever? And remains with us always together They are friends in our sorrow and grief They are friends in our happiness And help us to build our dreams.   True friends are with us in sickness And lend their shoulder to cry and reduce distress. It is easy to be friend But hard to find true friends.   True friends are counted from heart. They remain there, never to depart Ups & downs of life touches our ways Goodbye friends, they never say.   Written by Niraj (Thakur) Thapa Class 7

 

PROVEBS

We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing while others judge us by what we have already done.

It is always the season for an old men to learn.

Never answer a letter when you are angry.

Argument out of a pretty mouth is unanswerable.

The ink of the scholar is more sacred than the blood of the martyr.

It’s a bad bargain where nobody gains.

There is no cosmetic for beauty like happiness.

The best way to make children good is to make them happy.

Throw a lucky man into the sea, and he will come up with a fish in his mouth.

LAUGH AND LAUGH

Astrologer: You’ll be poor and unhappy until you’re forty.

Clint: (hopefully) Then what?

Astrologer: Then you’ll get used to it.

Nikky: “Sorry, old man, my hen is loose and scratched up your garden”.

Johson: “That’s all right, my dog ate your hen”.

Nikky: “ Fine, I just ran over you dog and killed him”.

One day a teacher was giving a lesson about cannibals. She saw that Jack did not understand. So, trying to explain, she asked him. “If you were to eat your father and mother, what would you be?” Jack replied: “I would be an orphan, Sir.”

Judge: Have you anything to offer the court before sentence is passed upon you?

Prisoner: No, your honour; my lawyer took my last penny.

Written by Munu Sherpa

Is in Class 8

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