October 21, Tihar Festival

Today is the 3rd day of the Tihard Festival which is the 2nd largest festival in Nepal (1st largest in India). This festival is 5 days - the first day honors the crow, the 2nd day the dog, the 3rd cows, the 4th bullocks, and the 5th brothers and sisters honor each other. We missed the 1st day, but in Dhulikel did see a lot of dogs with flowered colors and bright spots on their foreheads. The guidebooks make it sound quite comical as they say that dogs here are normally kicked and mistreated, so they must find it odd to truly be king for a day. The reason is that dogs lead the dead in their afterlife to somewhere... The 4th day of the festival marks the beginning of the New Year for the Newari people (the people here in Kathmandu). Throughout the festival the Goddess of wealth supposedly visits homes that are candlelit at night. We did a lot of candle flickering inside homes. The last day, brothers and sisters exchange gifts - the girls give the boys food and the boys give their sisters money!