Tag Archives: Lord shiva

Teej

Posted on September 10, 2012 | 13 comments

 

Teej is a four-day-long festival in Nepal and each day has its own significance.

  • First day is called ‘Dar Khane Din’, the day to make merry.
  • The Second day is a ‘fasting day’.
  • The third day is purification day
  •  The fourth day is ‘Rishi Panchami’

Dar Khane Din

The first day of Teej is called the “Dar Khane Din”. On this day, women don their finest attire and gather in one place to enjoy the day. Most women wear red saris or dark pink saris with lots of pote , chura and gold jewelleries. Some even apply henna on their hands. They sing, dance and enjoy a grand feast. The fun often goes on till midnight, after which the 24-hour fast begins.

In Sydney, all of us make one dish each and gather in one house. We enjoy music, dance and then have dinner. Even though most of us don’t fast, it is one of the days when we can wear a sari with jewellery and have fun with friends. I really enjoy this day.

The photos  are from last year’s Dar Khane din.

Fasting Day

The second day of Teej is the fasting day. Most of the women don’t eat anything and don’t even drink any water for a whole day while others take liquids and fruit and pray for the long life for their husband.

This is a very important day as this is the day when women fast and dedicated whole day in  pujas and prayers. The holy Pashupatinath temple is the most visited Hindu temple in Nepal during this day and there are be thousands of women in red saris to offer prayers to Lord Shiva.

They gather and offer puja to Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati with flowers, sweets and coins. Lighting of an oil lamp is very important part of the puja ceremony. It is said that the oil lamp should be kept lit all night to forestall evil.

They also have a good time singing and dancing around the temple. Here are some videos.

In Sydney, we go to Minto Hindu temple and offer our puja. I was really surprised to see so many women in the temple like in Nepal wearing red saris and performing puja.  I don’t fast so after puja I will eat but my friends who fast will continue the fast for the whole day.

Third day

Women get up at dawn and bathe and perform puja once again to the diyo (oil lamp) and the Goddess Parvati.  The most important part of this puja is a banana and holy basil (Tulsi patta) leaf. Only after this puja, women take solid food. This third day of Teej is Ganesh Chaturthi. Women eat Karkalo ko Tarkari with chokho (pure) food made with pure ghee.

Rishi Panchami

The fourth day of the Teej Festival is called Rishi Panchami.

On this day, the seven sages of the Hindu pantheon are worshiped by women in a belief that it will cleanse all sins of the previous year. Womenfolk take a holy bath with red mud found on the roots of the sacred Datiwan bush, along with its leaves. After three hours of rigorous cleansing, they come out purified and absolved from all sins. This act of purification is the final ritual of Teej, after which women are considered absolved from all sins.

Happy Teej everyone!!!

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Kushe Aushi (Father’s Day)

Posted on August 17, 2012 | 11 comments

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.

Kuse Aunse , Father's Day

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.

Kuse Aunse , Father's Day

Kuse Aunse , Father's DayKuse Aunse , Father's DayKuse Aunse , Father's DayKuse Aunse , Father's DayThis 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.

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Maha Shivaratri

Posted on February 20, 2012 | 15 comments

If you know Nepal, you might already know that there are lots of festivals every month. Today, we have one of those festivals and it is called Maha Shivaratri. It is believed that Shivaratri is the night when Lord Shiva was created by his own divine grace so this day is celebrated by Hindus with enthusiasm. Shivaratri literally means ‘ the night consecrated to Shiva’.

Maha Shivaratri is a national holiday in Nepal.

According to a legend, Parvati performed tapas, prayed and meditated on this day to ward off any evil that might befall her husband on the moonless night. Since then, Maha Shivaratri is believed to be an auspicious occasion for women to pray for the well-being of their husbands and sons. An unmarried woman prays for a husband like Shiva, who is considered to be the ideal husband. Another legend is that Shiva and Shakti married each other on this day.

There is one more legend of Shivaratri associated with Samudra Manthan, a battle between devas and asuras during which a pot of poison came out of the ocean and on the request of gods, Lord Shiva drank the poison. The poison was so potent that it changed the colour of His neck to blue. For this reason, Lord Shiva is also called Neelkanth (one whose throat is blue).

So basically this festival is in honour of the Hindu God Shiva. Today all the Shiva temples will be very busy. One of the best places to see the celebration will be Pashupatinath temple in Kathmandu located on the banks of the sacred Bagmati River. There will be thousands of people from all over the world (it is regarded as one of the most sacred temples for Hindus) coming to worship Shiva during the festival.

There will be a mela the days before and after Shivaratri where people fill the roads around the temples of Lord Shiva especially Pashupatinath temple . There will be  holy men, beggars, pilgrims, children and tourists.

The night before Shivaratri, all the devotees from all over the country spend the night lightning sacred fires, singing praises of the deity, and keeping a constant vigil to greet his descent to earth, on the grassy hills around the temple to enjoy the warmth of good companionship and chatting around.

At midnight, the celebration begins officially with priests inside the temple making special offerings. Then devotees will take a dip in holy Bagamati river and start their fasting. They offer Bael leaves to Lord Shiva. They will spend the whole day singing sacred songs around the temple. As all the Sadhus are treated as guest , they will be offered free food and accommodation during Shivaratri.

Shivaratri is the only day in the year where marijuana and bhang is legal in Nepal so on this day devotees indulge in smoking them. It is believed that Lord Shiva is fond of these substances and marijuana is taken as a Prasad.

There are lost of tourists around the Pashupatinath temple on this day as there are lots of Sadhus with ash all over the body and devotees with colourful draping chanting hymns of Lord Shiva.

It is believed that if you worship Lord Shiva this day and fast by eating only vegetarian food, all your sins are forgiven. So there will be queues kilometres long in the Pashupathnath temple whole day.

Also this day, kids and youth block the road for vehicles to collect money which they use to buy bhoj in the evening. Mostly vehicles owners are happy to give a rupee or two. When I was a kid I do remember the block in our area made some of the vehicle owners angry with the kids blocking the roads.

Today I worshipped Shiva’s idol at home in the morning and took his blessings. Hope all my sins will be forgiven and we will be blessed with an awesome 2012.

Happy Shivaratri everyone!!!

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Bhai Tika

Posted on October 30, 2011 | 12 comments

The fifth day of Tihar is Bhai Puja.

“Bhai” mean brother in Nepali. This festival is mainly for brothers and sisters.

It is believed that this tradition was started by Yama (the God of death) and his sister Yamuna because of their affection for each other.

In this day, sisters apply sacred Tika on their brother’s forehead and pray to Lord Yama for her brother’s long life and prosperity.

Yamaleswor temple

Some of the ethnic groups in Nepal use the Pancha Rangi Tika (Five coloured Tika)  for  Bhai Tika. First a base, rice flour is applied vertically  on the forehead then yellow, green, red, blue and white colour Tika are put on top of this line in a row. But in the Newa culture, we just use rice, vermilion and yogurt, mix them and use that as a Tika.

For this occasion, I had invited my brothers and their families to my apartment and we did the Bhai Tika on my balcony.

This is how I did my Bhai Tika.

Mandap Puja

Before the Bhai Tika, just like in Mha Puja, the floor was purified by sprinkling water on it, then we made Mandaps in front of a row of seats on the floor where my brothers were sitting. I used a copy of the same Mandap which was designed by AS but this time I printed them in A3 paper. In Nepal the Mandaps are made by hand on the floor using oil, rice flour, vermilion, puffed rice and sometimes beans. The number of the Mandaps needed is three plus the number of people doing the Puja. So I had two big Mandaps, for my brothers. in a row and three smaller Mandaps at the top of the row for the House God (Kuladevata), Yamaraj and Janmaraj, and one crow drawn at the end of the row symbolising Lord Yama.

Beside the three Mandaps at one end, I also had a Sukunda with a candle on it.

Bhai Tika

Then I put all the sweets and Rotis that I had made or bought as well as some fruits around the Mandap along with the Masala and Sagun.

The Rotis I made at home this year were

  • Besana ko ladoo
  • Puri
  • Nimki
  • Lal Mohan
  • Strawberry cup cake
  • Chocolate cup cake

(I will post recipes in my next post)

I also bought Soan Papdi.

Then I had trays with fruits like mangoes, peaches, plums, rockmelons, oranges, apples and pears.

Masala and Tshirt

I made Masala at home this year with dry coconuts, dry dates, raisins, almonds, pistachio nuts, apricots, dry figs, cashews, cloves, cardamoms, beetle nuts, hard shelled walnuts, palm sugar cubes and lots of Chocolates. I used clear cello wrap and colourful bows to make it look beautiful.

For Sagun, I boiled the eggs, took the shell out and fried them in a pan. I made Bara (lentil cakes, for which I will share recipe later), fried some chicken, fish and cut fresh garlic.

Jajanka

I made Mala out of tinsel and bought Jajanka in a Nepali grocery store. Jajanka is made of many rounds of a white cotton thread forming a circle of about two feet in diameter and tied with a small piece of colourful cloth in order to have no ends. Jajanka symbolizes the integration of the beginning with the end. It is about creation, maintenance and fullness of life. Normally the Mala is supposed to be of Makhmali ful/Supadi ful (Globe Amaranth) as it never dries and always looks fresh.

I also bought  T-shirts for both of them.

Bhai tika process

  •  First I gave Nasala, a few drops of water, in the palm of the right hand of my brothers to throw some into the mouth and rest over the body for purification.
  • I worshipped the House-God and Yama’s Mandap with water, rice, flowers, and vermilion powder.
  • I gave water, rice, flowers, and vermilion powder to my brothers first to worship the Mandap of the House God and then the crow, then to worship their own Mandaps. The Mandap is used as a medium to present the various offerings to the self.
  • Then I put Tika made of vermillion, rice and yogurt on my brothers forehead and gave them flowers to put on their head as a blessing form God. This was followed by Mala and Jajanka around their neck.

    Putting TIka

  • Normally in Nepal, they use Ita (special long threads made using white cloth soaked in mustard oil) but here we used tea light candles instead. I gave both my brothers the candles. They  took the candle from my hand, lit them and put them on their Mandap. This light is believed to brighten the inner self and keep evil at bay.
  • Then I took some water in an Ankhura (a small pitcher for Puja) filled with oil and water and Dubo in my hand and circled around my brothers three times.

    Making circle with oil and water

  • Then I gave them some rice and flower in their hand. Then I gave trays of Rotis, fruits, Masala, sweets and clothes to them and they had to hold them and keep them from touching the ground. Then I toke some rice and flower in my hand and showered each of them and worshipped the god within them. Only after that could they put the trays down.
  • Then my brothers put Tika on my forehead, touched my feet for my blessings and gave me the gifts they had brought for me. 
  • I gave them the Sagun . For Sagun, you put a plate of egg, Bara, meat and fish in the right hand and yogurt or alcohol in the left hand
  • Once everyone finished eating the Sagun, we used Kucho (broom) from top end of the row of Mandaps to the bottom of the row, touching each Mandpa to erase them and conclude our Bhai Tika.

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