Tag Archives: christmas

Merry Christmas from Kathmandu

Posted on December 25, 2012 | 16 comments

I always wished for a white Christmas. Even though it is not snowing in Kathmandu, I am having a cold Christmas here in Kathmandu unlike in Australia where it is hot and muggy during Christmas.

So from a far far land called Kathmandu, Merry Christmas everyone. May the Christmas spirit keep you warm and full of joy this holiday season.

Kathmandu has changed a lot in the past decade. When I was growing up here, there was hardly any sign of Christmas seen in Kathmandu but these days every shopping mall is decorated with Christmas decorations and every shop has a Santa or mannequin dressed in a red. From the only Hindu country in the world Nepal has changed to be a multi religious secular country.

xmas in kathmandu

My Facebook is full of photos of people from Nepal celebrating Christmas eve and Christmas, It is nice to see globalisation (in every aspect) happening in Nepal as well.

utc xmas lights

I also got this picture from my boss; it is of my desk at work full of gifts for Christmas. It was really nice of her. I am eagerly waiting to go back and open them 🙂

Xmas

Talking about Christmas I couldn’t help but notice that Bangkok is adorned in fairy lights and Christmas decorations.

According to Wikipedia, 94.6% of Thais are Buddhists followed by 4.6%  Muslims which leave less than 1 percentage of Thai to be Christian. But if you are in Thailand, especially Bangkok, you will be forgiven if you think Thailand is a 100% Christian country. It looks like Thais love Christmas.  As soon as early November rolls around, every year, up go the Christmas trees, the Christmas lights and the Christmas decorations all over Bangkok. We saw Christmas decoration in every shopping mall, every department store, every shop and even many schools and offices decorated for Christmas. It’s actually quite wonderful if you’re a Christian living in Bangkok, as it’s hard to be depressed and miss your family when there’s Christmas cheer everywhere in Bangkok.

Here are some decoration from Siam Paragon, Central World Plaza, Amarin Plaza and other malls and walkway around Bangkok.

Christmas in Bangkok DSC09557 DSC09560 DSC09562 DSC09564 DSC09565 DSC09570 DSC09571 DSC09573 DSC09615-tile DSC09620 DSC09638 DSC09649 DSC09653 DSC09658 DSC09659 DSC09663 IMG_1089

16 Comments

Posted in Australia, Holidays, Nepal 2012 / 2013, Thailand

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Ready for holiday

Posted on December 13, 2012 | 9 comments

I meant to write this post yesterday but I have been really busy this week. So finally I got some time to write this morning.

Right now I am at Sydney International Airport waiting for our flight to Bangkok. We checked in, passed immigration so nothing else to do but wait. AS is busy on his mobile playing Sudoko while I am browsing the net and writing this post.

This week has been really busy as my brother with SIL and little nephew left for Nepal. Then the whole week at work I had meetings and trainings that kept me very busy.

Anyway I am just glad that we are going on a holiday. Luggage wise I didn’t have much problem. I think it is better when I fly out from Sydney but coming back is always a problem with so much stuffs that I bring with me. We have more than 30 kgs in our luggage which is only gifts for my family and AS’s family. I always think I haven’t bought much but when we started packing, OMG there is so much. I really hope everyone will love our gifts as we spent lots of time on them.

First stop will be Thailand where we will spend 4 days going around and shopping in Bangkok. We will also meet AS’s cousin with his wife and little girl (she is under 2 and this is the first time we will be meeting her) so that is really exciting. After that we will be in Nepal for the rest of the holiday.

Really looking forward to spending a good time with our family. All the fear I have expressed in this blog before has gone away and I am really looking forward to having a great time.

I will have a cold but not a white Christmas this year so that is completely different than Christmas in Australia as I have mentioned in my post here, no BBQ, no beach.

I will be updating my blog  and reading other blogs less frequently until I come back to Sydney so till then take care everyone. Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

If you wish to send me a Christmas Gift, please read here to know what I want :).

9 Comments

Posted in Australia, Nepal, Travel

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Commercialisation of festivals: How much is too much?

Posted on November 29, 2012 | 22 comments

Last year, I did a post called “When is the right time to put up the Christmas tree?” and I want to talk some more about it today because all the malls and shops in Australia have had their Christmas lights and Christmas trees up for more than a month now.

I really think it is a bit too early to start the Christmas decorations but the business minded people don’t care about these at all. They think of all these festivals as a money making opportunity. The impact of commercialization has marred the real meaning of religious and traditional customs. The shops and malls here never followed the values but instead everywhere there’s a lot of hype. During festivals, malls attract you with discounts and people go mad shopping.

As soon as Christmas is up, the shops will be filled with Easter eggs and hot cross buns in January, almost 3 months before Easter.

No matter what religion we follow, any festival has significance and value but when one commercializes festivals, that basic aim is forgotten and everyone involved is thinking, “What am I going to get on this festival?” In fact, in some instances; the festivals have been commercialized so much, that kids do not even know the significance of the festival and consider it just another holiday or just another chance to increase their material possessions.

In this way, festivals lose their real significance since their aim was first, to spread love and peace and second, to celebrate the festival keeping in mind the reason why the festival was being celebrated.

It is not only in Australia, the commercialisation of festival’s happening in Nepal as well. Previously, festivals like Dashain and Tihar were family occasions. Dashain was all about family get together and family feast and Tihar was celebrated by lighting small diyos and candles, having a small puja and burning a few crackers to rejoice the homecoming of Lord Ram from his exile on this day. Nobody cared about what you wore or what you got as a present, but instead all that mattered was having fun and appreciating the day for what it symbolized.

But today, Dashain and Tihar is all about the show of money with what one has bought for the occasion or how big the party was in one’s house, what you got as a gift etc. If parents have their kids overseas, how much money children have sent for the festivals?

Children don’t even know why they have the day off from school to celebrate that day.

Festivals are not meant to be opportunities for financial gain for brands and companies. They are meant to be occasions for religious observance and for people to understand and respect the meaning behind them. I really think, children should be taught about traditional festivals in kindergarten and we should keep the valuable elements of the traditional festivals and preserve them for future generations.

22 Comments

Posted in Social Issue

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Liebster Blog Award

Posted on December 7, 2011 | 8 comments

It is December and Christmas is only a few weeks away. Christmas is the time for giving and I would like to give something back to all my fellow bloggers from whom I have learned so much. Also I’d like to thank everyone who visited my blog and left comments. It means a lot to me.

What is a Liebster Blog Award?

It’s an award to draw attention to blogs that are terrific but have less than 300 followers but deserves a lot more recognition and is all in the spirit of fostering new connections. I saw this concept romaning around the blogs so in the spirit of the giving season, I though I will start this award too.

Liebster means dearest, favorite or sweetest in German. This award is presented to the blogs which are your favorite, meaning, if you receive this award from a blogger then you are among their favorite blogs.

The Rules for the Liebster Award are:

  • Show your thanks to the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them.
  • Reveal your 5 top picks for the award and let them know by linking to their blog.
  • Post the award on your blog.
  • Bask in the love from the most supportive people on the blogosphere – other bloggers.
  • Best of all – have fun and spread all that good blogging karma.

So I would like to award the following blogs with this award (in alphabetic order). You are not obligated to do anything unless you want to.

Love your writing style and millions of ideas you have for blogging. Your recent post about your wedding plans had brought back my experience from my own wedding. Waiting for pre and post wedding posts now. Good luck with the rest of the preparation Kay.

I feel this blog has so many posts close to my heart that while reading some post I feel that I was writing them. I feel connected to Tash and love the way she expresses herself. Thank you for your support and for all the comments you left on my blog. It really helps to know that someone is following your blog.

Reading your blog it feels like I am part of your life as you share so much of your life here and I am thankful that you are allowing us to be part of your journey. You have a great way of writing that keeps your reader captivated and waiting for more. Your blog inspired me to start my own blog so Thank You C.

I miss so many things from Nepal and would like to thank you for filling the gaps through your blog. Your posts really help me to connect with Nepal and Nepali jiwan there. Thanks Zoe also for support and comments on my blog.

Basundhara, you seem to be more Nepali than I can be. You always have latest updates of news in Nepal and you seem to love everything about Nepal. Thank you for keeping me up to date through your blog  and for supporting and following my blog. Thanks for all the comments as it really helps to keep going. .

It was hard for me to pick 5 as there are few other blogs that I really like and follow regularly so if I get this award back from someone, I will love to award them as well.

Thank you everyone for your support. Keep blogging.

8 Comments

Posted in General

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When is the right time to put up the Christmas tree?

Posted on December 1, 2011 | 2 comments

At work today everyone had their own opinion on when to put up our Christmas tree. It has been up for the last few months in the shopping malls. They even have Christmas carols going on the loud speaker. I guess they just want us to shop for Christmas early.

In Sydney, every year there is a big event for the Martin Place Tree Lighting & Christmas Concert in Hyde Park. It happened on 24th of  November this year.

I really like the giant tree they have every year and especially the lights they have on Sydney Town Hall. It is colourful and in the evenings it brightens up the city.

In most suburbs, most houses have their Christmas lights up as well. There are some suburbs where they have so many decorations in the garden that people drive by just to look at the decorations and lights.

At work every department have their own tree and I am in charge of putting the tree up for our department. So when I told the boys that we need to put up our tree today, they said it was too early. But then all the girls including my boss were ok to have our tree up today.

Anyway I did some research and found that different people have a different opinion. Most suggested that Christmas tree should be up only 12 days before Christmas and until 12 days after Christmas. Do you know when is the right time for putting up the tree?

The problem at work is most of us take time off around Christmas which means that the last week before Christmas and first week after New Year , there is hardly anyone around.  There is no point in having decorations if there is no one around to appreciate them.

So finally we decided as it is 1st of December today, the tree should be put up today. We spent few hours decorating the tree and now it looks a lot like Christmas in our department.Holiday season is here and I am really enjoying it. I need to go around different departments now and see what they are up to for Christmas decorations.

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

2 Comments

Posted in Australia, Holidays

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