What better way to wake up in the morning than this. Breakfast in bed. Thank you my darling for everything and esp for roses. :-). Love you so much…
The title says it all. I have a brother but I always wanted a sister as well. I wish I had one even more for the last few years.
As I grew older, I always loved my brother and never thought not having a sister as any disadvantage at all. But for the last few years, I realised that a sister can be your best friend that you can have no matter what happens in life.
Most of the times friends come and go but if I had a sister I would have had her for my life time.
One of the reasons that triggered this thought was because everyone around me had a sister. All my cousins have their own sister and I can see that they are closer now than when they were kids. They share their happiness and sorrow and they know they have this one person in life they can rely on no matter what. I wish I had the same as well.
I felt the pain even more when I went to Nepal to get married. One of my cousins got married before me. She had her sister’s help in every step of her plan till the day she got married. She was her shopping partner and planning partner. They went everywhere together and were always there when she needed a hand. It was so great to see that she was never too stressed as she knew that there was someone she could count on.
After four months of her wedding I went to Nepal to get married. Unfortunately for me as I have no sister, I ended up doing everything for the wedding on my own. And you know from my posts that Nepalese wedding is not a small affair. I didn’t want to bother my parents so I used to be out of the house everyday doing one thing or another. It is not easy in Nepal like it is here. You can’t do things online or over the phone so you have to meet people for every little thing. That time I so wished I had a sister so I would have gotten some help.
I had a few friends who helped me but I couldn’t expect them to take time off from their work to be with me. If I’d had a sister I am sure she would have done that. Thank god everything went as planned and I am really happy that my parents are so happy with me as well.
After a year of my wedding another of my cousins got married. She lives in US but got married in Nepal. Lucky for her, she has a sister as well so everything was perfectly done when she came to Nepal for wedding. She just came a day before the first day of her wedding and everything was all set.
I guess some people are just plain lucky that they get everything in their life so easily while others have to work hard to get anything in life.
I am not even sure what I want to convey with this post but sometimes when I am alone and have a moment for myself, I wonder and think if I had my own sisters like others do, would my life have been better in some aspect.
I have to be thankful that my life is perfectly fine. I am healthy with loving parents and husband. My work is going fine and I am achieving lot of my dreams. But then there are some areas of life that I feel lack something. I feel like I just want to rant sometimes and today it ended up as a blog.
Tagged home, love, relationships, sisterly love, sisters, Wedding
Today is Kushe Aushi in Nepal which is Nepali Father’s day. Kush is a type of holy grass. There is a tradition to bring Kush home on this day of Aunshi (no moon day). Hence, this day is called Kushe Aushi.
As I have mentioned in many of my posts before, Nepal has a different calendar than the Gregorian calendar. So in Nepal people also celebrate Father’s day on a different day than the western calendar. In Australia, Father’s Day is celebrated on the first Sunday of September every year but in Nepali calendar, it changes every year according to the positions of sun, moon and the planets. It falls on the last day of the dark fortnight of August or early September. This year, it happens to be today, 17 August 2012. It is commonly known as Buwa ko Mukh Herne in Nepal which translates into looking at father’s face.
As I mentioned in my previous post regarding Mother’s day, this day is very similar to Mother’s day and we cook yummy food for dad. Mostly mum will be do the cooking in reality but we give that to dad :). Like Mother’s day Mum makes Sagun and we give that to dad.
Both my parents don’t have their dad anymore so every father’s day they prepare sida daan for a priest. Sida is a holy mixture of rice grains and other pure food materials and a collection of clothes.. They have a shower first thing in the morning and go to the priest’s house to give sida to the priest. During Kuse Aunse Hindus from all over Nepal, whose fathers have passed away descend on Gokarneswar Madadev Temple to worship and take holy dips, and present offerings. They also do Sraddha or pinda daan to their deceased father and some do Shradha at home or at the near river or at any holy place nearby.
Mythology has placed the Gokarna shrine from prehistoric times when Lord Shiva hid himself in the Pashupatinath forest, disguised as a one-horned golden deer, from the gods and mankind. While he spent his days frolicking, the world suffered so Lord Vishnu, the preserver, Lord Brahma, the creator and Lord Indra, the king of Gods, took matters into their hands and searched for him. Finally a goddess revealed Shiva’s disguise. So when they finally caught the deer by the horn , it burst into fragments and Shiva revealed himself. He asked the other three gods to establish his horn in their three worlds. So, Vishnu installed his section in his abode in Vaikuntha, Indra in his realm in heaven and Brahma enshrined it at the sacred site of Gokarneshwor. The following day the gods and goddesses descended and bathed in Bagmati river, paid homage to Shiva and established the present day tradition of ancestor worship at Gokarna.
As I have describe in my previous post, in Nepal the first year of marriage is considered to be very important. So during every festival, there are things you are meant to do. This affects how you celebrate Dashain, Tihar, Father’s Day, Mother’s day and more. Last year, I had my first Father’s day after my wedding and my MIL made sure it was a special one for my dad. Here are some photos from the day.
This year I have sent some gifts for my dad already and he will get them today. After work I am going to Skype with him. It is always so nice to see him happy.
So if you haven’t called you dad to wish him, do give him a call and make him smile. And to all the proud dads out there, Happy Father’s Day.
Here is one of the Father-daughter song form Nepali movie. Hope you will like it.
Baby BJ was 11 days old last Friday so we had a ceremony held for him called Nwaran.
The ceremony is also known as Machabu Byakegu in Newari. It takes place on the 11th day from birth. This ceremony is performed to give a birth name to a child according to his/her lunar horoscope, this is usually not the name by which he/she will be known. This ceremony is normally small and celebrated amongst close family.
We are lucky to have a friend who is also a priest. He gave us a list of things that are required for the day and everything was ready when he arrived at my brother’s place at 8.30 am.
The main ceremony was conducted in the balcony of my brother’s apartment. Before the priest arrived we had cleaned and mopped the place. So, when he arrived, he started making a Mandap on the balcony. Once it was ready he asked my brother to come and join him for the Puja.
He had all his books of mantras and it took more than an hour for the first phase of the Puja to finish. It involved lots of mantra reciting from the books and lots of different Pujas to God, with candles on the Mandap.
Then he asked my Sister in law and Baby BJ to join the Puja. He chanted more mantras from the book. Then he asked my SIL to perform Puja to the sun. Then he put tika on Baby BJ’s forehead and gave him a piece of paper which had details required to make his Jaata (lunar horoscope chart). It will be done by my parents in Nepal.
Then we took little BJ for Surya Darshan, i.e. to let the sunray fall on him as a blessing. He was also given a holy cloth with his birth name written on it.
Then he put Tika on my brother, SIL and then the rest of us. He also put Janai (holy string) around our wrists.
After that all of us put Tika on baby BJ as our blessings. Little BJ got lots of gifts from all of us, mainly clothes and toys.
After the Puja was concluded we had our morning brunch.
Posted in Family, Nepali Culture, Newari Culture
Tagged Annaprashan, baptism ceremony, Chhaithi, dubo ko mala, golden threads, horoscope chart, junko, Macha Junko, machabu-byakegu, Mandap, motherhood, newari, Nwaran, Nwaran and Pasni, Pasni
AS I mentioned in my post Nwaran and Pasni previously, there a so many rituals in Hindu culture when one has a baby. Now that I have a nephew, we need to follow the rituals and one of them is called Chhaithi (sixth day) as it is performed on the sixth day after a child’s birth. So yesterday I went to my brother’s place after work to celebrate the Chhaithi of my little nephew.
For Chhaithi, the fufu (baby’s dad’s sister, or the baby’s paternal aunt) will need to bring some koseli (gifts for the baby) which includes fruits and sweet along with a new pair of clothes for the baby. She will also bring a notebook and a pen/pencil.
So to start the Chhaithi, the fufu sits with the infant on the ground and they are be surrounded by 12 oil lamps (diyo, we used tea light candles instead) and one more diyo is also lighted for god. A puja thali is prepared which is used to put tika on baby’s forehead. Then the baby will be changed into the new clothes.
After that everyone else (starting from the fufus) will put tika on the baby’s forehead and give some money or other gifts to the fufu. The last one will be the baby’s father who will give some gift to his sister and take the baby from her.
After the ceremony when the baby goes to sleep, the notebook and pen is kept on his bed side along with one of the candles. It is believed until that day , the baby’s fortune is not written so that night, god will come and write his fortune using that notebook and pen.
Proud Parents
It was my first experience to be a part of baby’s life from their early days. I really enjoyed it. This Friday we will be celebrating his Nwaran.
BTW, they have a name for the baby now and I will be referring him as Baby BJ from now on.
Posted in Family, Nepali Culture, Newari Culture
Tagged Chhaithi, motherhood, Nwaran, Nwaran and Pasni, Pasni
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