Badadashain-one of the major festival of Nepaleseby Asmita Gaire | 29-10-2020 01:36 |
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          Badadashain also known as Vijayadashami/Dashain is one of the major festival of Nepalese. Nepalese celebrate this festival every year in the month of September or October. It starts from bright lunar fortnight (Shukla Paksha), and end on the full moon (Purnima). The Nepali word 'Vijaya' means victory in English. This festival is the symbol of victory of good over evil where goddess Durga is worshipped. In Hindu mythology, the demon Mahishasura had created terror in the world where gods lives but goddess Durga killed the demon. The fight was for 10 days. On the tenth day, goddess Durga killed the demon. It is also believed it was the day when the Ravana (Demon) was killed by Ram (Lord). So, on the tenth day, people make celebration for the victory of good over evil. It is celebrated for 15 days. This festival starts with Ghatsthapana where people sow the barley (Major) and maize seed with workship, and are kept in dark room. The barely and maize sprouts with yellowish color which is called as Jamara. The normal sprout of barley and maize in environment is green in color but Jamara is yellowish in color. Barley is regarded as "King of grains". Barley does have many health benefits and are used in homeopathic treatment. In Nepalese culture, putting Jamar is regarded as auspicious. On the tenth day or in dashami, there is Tika; in this day, Nepalese take Tika on their forehead, Jamara and blessings from their elders. Tika is a dab made up of mixture of yougurt, red powder and rice (uncooked rice). People visit their elders to take Tika. There's also a certain time allocated for Tika to be started as decided by astrologer in the basis of certain astrological calculations. This year, the time for Tika was at 10:19 am on 26th October. This year, because of pandemic, the festival was restricted within only short distance, more precisely it was limited to indoors. Otherwise, people visit their relatives and take Tika for five days. Taking Tika is practiced for five days since many relatives may be far due to which it might take more than one or two days to visit them. Nepalese in Nepal and abroad, everyone makes time for it's celebration. People eat delicious food , fly kites in the sky and play swing. The swing is called 'Ping' in Nepali. To be more genuine, it's called "Linge ping" since it is made up of bamboo and very strong and thick rope. The swing is very long and strong. There's a saying that annually a person must leave their feet from ground. So, in dashain while playing swing they don't touch ground and fulfill it. This is a brief about our major festival. Since it's an international networking platform, I love learning other culture and also sharing mine. I believe all the festivals have a deep meaning behind for celebrations, and also contains some environmental message like the way we use 'Jamara' and it's significance. Let's share and celebrate. |
