Dixya Poudel

As festival season starts in Nepal, there is a feeling of joviality in the air. The approaching Hindu festivals of Dashain and Tihar call for exchanges of warm wishes in the Nepali community. Dashain is celebrated for fifteen days and is considered the most auspicious of Nepali festivals. The main day of Dashain is celebrated by receiving tikas from the elders and imparting blessings and tikas to the young ones. Likewise, Tihar is celebrated for five days and each one of these days is allocated for various worships.

We celebrate festivals with our loved ones and in doing so we pass the traditions associated with each festival to the younger generations. Who we are is tied intricately and indelibly with the country, culture, society and religion that we grow up in. As young children, we learn to participate in festivals within closely knitted family. Parents impart the traditional heritage and customs to young ones. Thus when children grow up, they come to appreciate, participate in and relish the various aspects of each festival. For example, Teej is different from Dashain in the traditional customs of celebrations.

Each festival comes with its own legends, myths, norms and traditions. We follow them quite seriously and any breach in the traditions is frowned upon. However, with changing times and increasing modernity, the celebrations of festivals tend to get a makeover. We ought to evolve with time while balancing the act between modernism and traditional practices. As we can see today, people are bound to their smart phones through which they log on the social media. Festivals are now celebrated jovially as the smart phones click the pictures of these celebrations which will of course be posted online.

Similarly, people exchange festival greetings in the social networking sites. Especially the current times have led to an increasing dependence on the electronic gadgets to connect to the loved ones. The subsequent celebrations of festivals through the virtual media have led to a phrase termed as 'virtual Dashain' or 'virtual Tihar.' As the world goes digital, festivities are lately displayed in the pages of the social media and there are acceptable modifications around the traditional norms.

Even in the moments of crisis, people prioritise festivities whenever possible. If we look around the world, we can find people trying their best to keep alive the festivities in precarious circumstances. Even the ancient civilisations celebrated festivals. The Greek, Roman and Egyptian civilizations had their unique festivals where people would gather together in the company of their loved ones. Today there are different types of festivals such as cultural, religious, national and seasonal festivals.

Often there are public holidays in such festivals and people get to relax and enjoy their times with families, friends and relatives. The ancient civilizations created rituals to bring their citizens together and these passed down from one generation to another. Thus with time, these rituals became fixated as traditions which were permeated through generations and preserved as significant festivals.

The festivals around the world differ according to the nations, cultures and religions. But what they do have in common is a shared joy in their celebrations and a respite from every day stresses. Due to their profound cultural, religious, national and traditional values, festivals are celebrated in a spirit of genuine conviviality.