Tihar (The Brother Sister Festival)
Saturday, October 29, 2011
M and S
We've been very busy celebrating over here!!! There were three days straight of dancing and singing groups stopping by. A lot of them would even show up with their own sound system and have dance offs on our front porch... men and women and kids alike. My favorite groups were the tweens and of course our Kopila students coming by. It is pretty entertaining and also very loud. I don't think there was a quiet moment in our compound all week. There were times when we had two or three groups at once. We lit up the entire house with candles and lights and danced and sang and hosted Bhaili carolers. We ended this week with a bang for "Bhai Tika," the brother sister festival. As you can probably imagine, we have a LOT of brothers and sisters in this household so our celebrations were not short on tika and blessings. During this festival sisters bless their brothers and pray for their long and happy life. It is truly a beautiful ceremony.
N flashes me a smile with his tika (i'm obsessed with taking pictures of him these days)
Jeff and Julia take part in the ceremony!
M, B, H and S (a shot from above)
S blesses B!!
K blesses B
B and S
D and N with big sister A
I love this picture! I think B looks like a little prince
Even Dad and Uncle Ed have a Nepali sister now!
Tope and Prithi Daju with their sister Gaunkala
Auntie (Bauju) passes out flower necklaces
I absolutely love this holiday. My eyes tear up every time I watch my children paint each others foreheads and put necklaces on one another. The bond between siblings is so special and I for one am thankful that these guys have each other and care for one another. I couldn't stop taking pictures and thinking about how when their older they'll have these days to remember and hopefully they will still be celebrating "bhai tika" together.