Santa visits INF in Nepal

Here is the youtube video of the movie that Matt made with a little of Mark's help (and others). Well done Matt - it looks great. Enjoy

Tihar

Tihar is a nepali festival that can also be called the festival of lights or dipwali. It is a time for the hindus to celebrate the victory of good over evil and to worship the god of wealth.
In order to show the god of wealth to peoples homes they light up their houses with lights and candles (and the power stayed on over the weekend!). They also worship animals as you can see in the photos.
While these days there is still the worship we saw a lot more of the cultural aspects. These included stages (most of the time these were mats on the ground but sometimes they were full on stages), speakers set up (and turned up so loud that everything was distorted) and cultural dance and singing was performed. There were motorcycle conveys of musicians and dancers going from one venue to another to perform.
The festival has to start at the right time according to the astrologers. The dates were set but at the last minute they changed their minds and the dates were changed. This caused a lot of confusion which we thought was really funny and I thought that Jesus would be sitting in heaven also laughing!

 The dancing on the streets.

 All the candles on peoples houses - photo taken from our deck

 The power had gone out at this stage but the next door neighbour had his lights on his back up system! (he's rich!)

 The entrance to our house - our landlord used candles rather than lights.

 The steps leading up to our house

and then past our house to the puja room.

The dancing was on the street but the streets weren't closed, there weren't people in bright yellow jackets directing traffic and some of the motorcycle drivers in particular were quite drunk and driving well over a sensible speed limit given the number of people watching.

Mark and I got invited to a program at a local community hall that our landlord was organising. As the honourable foreigners we got presented with shawls - a sign of respect as well as forced to dance a few times!

 Others receiving the ceremonial shawls as a sign of honour

 Yes - that is Mark trying to dance nepali style

 This day was dog day and so this dog has a flower garland around his neck and a red powdered worship sign on his forehead (it isn't clear in this photo)

The next day was cow day and the same was done for cows. The day before was crow day and crows are fed tasty food to prevent bad luck.

 These were two 'old people' who tried their hand at dancing as well.

 ...except the frail one needed a little help onto the stage.

 ...and off again....

 The nepalis were trying to teach him a dancing move that involves squatting and getting up really quickly!