The second day of Tihar is Kukur (dog) puja.
A dog is man’s best friend and for Hindus, a dog is considered as the steed of God “Bhairab” as well as Yama’s (God of death’s) gate keeper. Dogs howling is consider bad as it means that, they saw “Yama “ coming to take someone away.
Around the year, dogs help humans by guarding their house . So on the second day of Tihar, dogs are worshipped by putting tika on their forehead and a garland around their neck. They are offered a delicious meal consisting of meat and other dishes. People perform the puja on their own dogs if they have dog at home, otherwise they perform the puja on stray dogs. On this day you can see so many stray dogs have red tika and flower gland in Nepal.
We don’t have a dog here but my parents have a dog called “Chootu”. So I performed my Kukur Puja with his photo. I really am grateful to him that he is there to protect and warn my parents against thieves and the likes.
Happy Tihar!!!
