Hi dear Hive community,
Hindu culture is a very special one and very different from ours. They have countless gods and godesses, which they worship. They have many rituals and different festivals, and we were very lucky to be here during the season of the festival called Diwali which means the festival of light and hope. It symbolizes the victory of good over the evil.
The Diwali is going on for 5 days in the Autumn time, between September and November. Nepal follows their own calander that is orientated around the moon and has 13 months. That's the reason why the timing is changing and is not fixed.
People celebrate this time by putting and decorating their homes with colourful lights. Everywhere you could see the groups of young people wearing traditional clothes and dancing. Many times we joined and danced with them. This made them very happy. Sometimes it caused the lack of sleep, as the music was very loud and it lasted long into the night.
One day is specially dedicated to the goddess of prosperity and wealth Lakshmi. The custom is to draw and decorate a colourful circle called rangoli in front of their home or business. They put also candles, incens, fruits, sweets or money, as a gift to the goddess which will visit them. From the rangoli there leads small footsteps, showing the goddess the way inside.
We were walking around the Pokhara seeing many rangolis. Every single one of them was unique made with different colours and patterns. It was very fun, people were very happy seeing that we took picture of their artwork.
Besides that, we visited a nearby temple two times. One time we saw many youngsters cleaning and preparing the place for the evening celebration. We returned in the evening when they lighted up many dhyas (small candle lamps) which were surrounding the temple. It was looking very beautiful, but sadly people were not really interested to visit and see this.
Therefore, if you plan to travel to Nepal, or any other country with Hindu culture, keep in mind the festival times. We really recommend you to be a part of this.
Thank you for reading and wish you a great weekend!