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 