Dashian is almost finished now. Today is the last day of Dashain and the celebrations are over until mid-November when we celebrate Tihar.
After Tika, last five days of Dashain are celebrated by visiting relatives and getting tika and blessing from them. As far as I know, in Chhetri and Bhaun culture, they normally visit relative to get blessing on Dashami itself. They don’t need invitation for tika so they go to the their elders’ house and get blessing. That day is a big day for them as they get to meet lots of relatives.
But in Newar culture, we cannot go to anyone’s house until we get an invitation. If a daughter is married, she won’t even go to her parents’ house until the invitation arrives. This invitation is called Nakhatey in Newari. Normally relatives consult each other so so that the Nakhateys don’t fall on the same day and everyone gets to attend all Nakhateys.
Going for the Nakhatey is a big part of Dashain for Newars in Nepal. I remember growing up going to houses of my relatives to get tika, blessings and daskchhina (money). It was a fun filled affair with lots of yummy food as well as money to collect.
In Sydney as well, we had a few Nakhateys. We were invited to AS’s cousin’s house as he is the eldest of AS’s relatives in Sydney. We had tika and Nepali food. I wore my sari and got into a festive mood. We got tika from AS’s cousin and we also put tika to his younger cousins.
We also had tika from my Dai , his wife and we put tika to their daughter.
So my Dashain for this is over 🙂
nepaliaustralian 
You are right about chettri-bahun not needing invitation. In fact, if younger people don’t show up for tika without invitation, elders take offense since it might symbolize lack of respect to them. But they do have enough time to visit their relatives until the day of purnima (15th day) just like in the case of newars.
Even in Nepal, our traditions contradicts. Hope you had a great Dashain 🙂
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Your right about Chettri and Baun castes.. they don’t have dashain ko nakhatey, nor have I heard subba’s, gurungs or lamas do it. Maybe Im wrong, but I do know from A, and he is Chettri and like you said they visit on the day of Dashain itself without any invitation.
Btw, you look like a bengali girl with your sari combination colours 🙂 cute!!
Thank you gal. This Dashain was so special and fun 🙂
I am still waiting for my Nakhatey (from southern hemisphere), not much into daskchhina but yummy food yeah!!
You got an open Nakhatey Yatin. Anytime you are in Australia, I will cook dinner for you 🙂
Looks like a good time was had by all. We’ll be doing a bit of celebrating in a few weeks, albeit without the same flair.
I am waiting for that celebration as well 🙂
I hadn’t thought of it until now, but I suppose there are days during Dashain when you go from one family’s house to another and try to fit in as many celebrations as you can? Christmas has been like that for us in years past; trying to fit in too much can take away from the enjoyment of it. A little. 🙂
We have 5 days after the main tika to fit all those so most of the time it is not bad as all those 5 days are public holidays as well 🙂