Category Archives: Nepali Festivals

Chhori’s first Tihar

Posted on November 2, 2016 | 4 comments

Tihar, the second biggest festival for Hindus after Dashain, was from 28th Oct to 1st Nov this year. Please click here to know more about the festival.

This year was Chhori’s first Tihar celebration so I wanted to make sure she had a great memory of the celebration.

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Tihar is celebrated for five days and here are some photos from our celebration this year.

  • Kaag / Kag (crow) Puja

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  • Kukur (dog) Puja

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  • Laxmi Puja and Gai (cow) Puja

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  • Goru Puja,Gobhardan Puja , Mha Puja and Nepal Sambat

As my parents are here this year, it was great to have a whole family celebrating Mha puja.

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  • Bhai Tika

Chhori does Bhai tika to my nephew. It was so cute to see these little ones performing the ritual.

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Hope everyone celebrating had great Tihar too.

Take care everyone,

M from nepaliaustralian

XOXO

4 Comments

Posted in Celebrations, Kathmandu, Nepal, Nepali Culture, Nepali Festivals, Newari Culture, Newari Food

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Dashain – family, playing cards, food and celebration

Posted on October 18, 2016 | 15 comments

As I mentioned in my previous post, we celebrated Dashain from 1st October-15 October. Like every year I was super busy performing rituals at home and going for tika at different relatives places. But I have to admit that I am really tired this year compared to the last few years, looks like my age is catching up on me 🙂

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On Asthami, my parents, my brother’s family and a few of my friends’ family went to the Helensburg temple. The temple had a great vibe going with lots of people praying and special chanting going on for the occasion of Dashain. Helensburgh (3)

Of course after the ritual, we went to their canteen for breakfast and I had my favourite Masala Dosa 🙂

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On Nawami, apart from Kumari and Ganesh puja, I have mentioned before, we did Gadi puja as well .Please click here for more information on why it is done.

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Dashami or Tika day was really busy for us. First of all, in the morning we need to do puja at home using Jamara and then Chhori had her first tika of her life from me and AS.

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Then we went to my parents’ place so they can give us blessings (and money :)). It was a great feeling to have my parents here. It has been more than a decade that I got to be together with my parents during Dashain so it was extra special.

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There we put tika for my brother, SIL and nephew and they put tika for Chhori. We had lunch there and went to visit other relatives. We went to few places before coming back to my parents’ place. By the time, we came back home that evening it was past 10 pm and all of us were really tired.

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Chhori had a great time for sure and she was wearing Lengha for the first time in her life. It was a gift given to her from my friend’s mum and she looked super cute.

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The next day we were again invited to another friend’s place. I had to work that day so after work we went to their place. There I managed to play some cards as AS was minding Chhori.

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It must have been a lucky day for me as I won some money, only $50 but we had so much fun.

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On Saturday, the last day of Dashain we invited our friends and family for tika and bhoj. I was cooking for around 30 people so was in kitchen for almost the whole day. But the evening was wonderful with family and relatives.

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Chhori definitely had a great time and was spoiled with blessings and gifts.

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Overall, we had a great week of celebration and eating lots of yummy food. I am sure I have put on a couple of kilos  🙂

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Hope all of you celebrating Dashain had a great one as well.

Take care everyone,

M from nepaliaustralian

XOXO

15 Comments

Posted in Nepal, Nepali Culture, Nepali Festivals

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Ganesh and Kumari puja during Nawami

Posted on October 10, 2016 | 10 comments

In Newari tradition, during Nawami young girls and boys are worshipped as Ganesh and Kumari. It is believed that young children are pure and God resides in their body.

As my parents are here this year, we did the ritual this morning.

We had Chhori as Kumari and my nephew as Ganesh.

To celebrate Dashain, I dressed Chhori in traditional Nepali kurta. I absolutely love traditional outfits on Chhori, she looks so cute.

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We did the simple process for puja; just tika and flower first, then all the adults gave them gifts or money and touched their feet for blessing. Both the kids were over joyed getting all the money and gifts.

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It feels so good to do traditional things for Dahain. Made me miss Nepal a little less this year.

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Hope everyone who is celebrating Dashain is having a great time.

Happy Dashain once again!!!

Here are the posts I have written regarding Dashian over the years .

Take care everyone,

M from nepaliaustralian

XOXO

10 Comments

Posted in Australia, Nepal, Nepali Culture, Nepali Festivals, Newari Culture

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Dashain Kite festival in Sydney

Posted on October 7, 2016 | 8 comments

The biggest festival for Nepalese, Dashain, started from 1st October and we had a great start to the festival.

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This year it is really special for us as I have my parents here and this will be the first time Chhori can have Dashain Tika as we couldn’t celebrate last year.

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On Saturday, it was Gathasthapana, the day we plant Jamara. That day in Sydney, we also had another event to attend, the Kite festival organised by Guthi Australia.

They have been organising this event for the last few years and I really like it. They try to bring the Dashain vibe from Nepal to Sydney as much as possible by organising lots of cultural and traditional things during the gathering.

The function was held in the Rockdale Bicentenary Park and the entry was free.

The main highlights of the event for me was the Rath (Charito), Kumari, Lakhe and colourful kites in the sky.

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The Rath was done better than last year. It was a smaller version of the Rath in Nepal but it was great for kids to understand what the Rath looks like and they were allowed to pull them around the ground as well.

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There was a little girl dresses up as Kumari , only living Goddess in the world worshipped by Hindus and Buddhists in Nepal.

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 Lakhe is a demon in Nepalese folklore with a ferocious face with protruding fangs and mane of red or black hair.

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They had an energised Lakhe dancing to traditional music.

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If you are in Kathmandu during Dashain, the sky will be full of kites of different colours and we got to see some of that on the day as well.

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Little girls performing in traditional music was amazing and so was the fashion show and concert.

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There were many stalls for Tradtional handicrafts and Food stalls. Of course we enjoyed our evergreen momo.

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Chhori had a great time as well running around, playing on the swing in the park and enjoying the food.

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She was spoiled by all of our friends and relatives as usual.

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I am really glad these types of events happen in Sydney. As you all know I love my traditions and culture and I want Chhori to see, learn and know our culture too. These kind of organised events definitely will help me educate Chhori and hopefully develop her interest in Nepali traditions and culture in future.

Wishing you all a very Happy Dashain!!!

Here are the posts I have written regarding Dashian over the years .

Take care everyone,

M from nepaliaustralian

XOXO

8 Comments

Posted in Australia, Celebrations, Nepal, Nepali Culture, Nepali Festivals, Nepali food

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Happy Aama ko Mukh herne (Nepali Mother’s day)

Posted on May 9, 2016 | 6 comments

It was Nepali Mother’s day on Friday 6th May 2016 and Australian Mother’s day yesterday. This year’s mother’s day is extra special for us as we have my mum, and my MIL (she arrived in Sydney yesterday) here.

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I was lucky enough to have my mum here last Mother’s day as well but it is AS’s first Mother’s day after a long time so I made sure they had a good one.

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On Friday we celebrated in the traditional style with sagun, fruits, sweets and cakes. It was nice to observe AS’s celebration as both of them were very happy.

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I also had my Mother’s day for my mum with sagun, fruits, sweets and cake.

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It is nice to have her here and wish we will be together for Mother’s day every year.

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I am a mum now too, so it was nice to be on the other end of the ceremony. Last year Chhori was too small but this year, she is big enough to enjoy the fun. She got me a cute card (AS did :)) and also sagun, fruits, sweets and a cake too.

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My MIL helped her with the tick and sagun for me. She was clam and followed the instructions well.

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It feels so good to be the mother of such a cute munchkin and I am so proud of her.

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And to all the proud moms out there, Happy Mother’s day. Hope you had a good one.

Take care,

M from nepaliaustralian

XOXO

6 Comments

Posted in Being Mum, Nepal, Nepali Culture, Nepali Festivals, Nepali food

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