Tihar: Victory of Light
Tihar or ‘The Festival of Lights,’ is the second biggest festival after Dashain. It is a five-day-long celebration with houses emitting iridescent lights, artistic rangolis, and flowery decorations.
We also call these five days Yama Panchak where we do everything we can to keep Yama Raj happy. Keeping our good deeds in mind, he will judge our character after death and decide our path to heaven or hell accordingly.
In this remarkable observation, we honor animals to commemorate their unique bond with humans. Tihar means victory of good over evil and in that context people consider different creatures as divine gifts from Mother Nature who help stir our everyday community life.
Talking about various ways of celebration, on the first day of Tihar, people offer rice to crows aka the messenger of death. As crows are busy delivering important information to Yama Raj all year round, they rest on this auspicious day. We should strive to keep the crows satisfied in the hopes of avoiding bad news in the forthcoming year.
Likewise, the second day is dedicated to Kukur Puja honoring dogs for their loyalty to human beings. They are known to be our protectors and play a significant role in safeguarding our community. If you take a stroll around your area, you can see dogs beautified with flower garlands and a huge tika applied to their forehead. Also, after the ceremony is over, they get to feast on a scrumptious meal and they are left with a happy tummy.
Then on the third day comes Gai Tihar where we worship cows and Laxmi (the goddess of wealth). Being the most important holiday of Tihar, people get up early in the morning to clean the room thoroughly in order to appease the divine Goddess. Traditionally, she is known to visit every household to shower her blessing. After that, the cows get a cozy bath and we accessorize them with intricately designed garland. The priest even ties holy strings to their tails as part of the custom.
Goru Tihar, Govardhan Puja, and Mah puja are celebrated on the fourth day and three separate pujas are performed to celebrate this momentous day. As part of Goru Puja, we worship the Oxen. Followed by Govardhan Puja where we make a hill of Govardhan Parbat using the holy cow dung which is known to purify the surroundings. Having major importance in Hindu culture, it was used to polish mud floors of traditional houses.
A ceremony big in the Newar community, Mha Puja is also called self-puja where we intend to cleanse our body and soul. Each member of the family has a distinct mandap and a female member of the family offers shagun with her hands crossed. The shagun can be anything from fruits, eggs, fish, meat, pastries, and lentil. This also marks the starting of Newari New Year.
The fifth day or Bhai Tika celebration is best explained through a popular story about Yama the god of death, and his sister Yamuna. The two of them had been apart for a long time so the sister makes a request to her brother to pay a visit. She sent a message through a crow, dog, and cow until finally, she decided to meet her brother. Following a special ritual, she worships him with tika and flowers and puts five colored tika. Along with that, Yamuna made a circle with mustard oil, Dubo Grass (Cynodon Cactylon), and ended the ceremony with Makhmaali Mala (Globe Amaranth).
For five days, she kept her brother happy and on the last day in form of gratitude, Yama gives her presents thus marking the celebration of Bhai Tika. This is how we celebrate the festival of Light over Darkness.