My favorite festival’s name is Tihar. It is the second greatest festival of Hindu. They celebrate this festival for five days. The day’s names are Kag puja (worship of crow), Kukur puja (worship of dog), Gai puja (worship of cattle), Maha puja (worship of self) and Bhai tika (worship of brothers by sisters). We also play deusi bhailo (a cultural programme in which we sing and dance). We play fire crackers during the festival. We make rangoli. Our mother cooks delicious food for our family and neighbours. We worship goddess Laxmi on Tihar. We sit with our neighbours, sing, dance and have fun. We go for shopping or we go to our relatives. We drink juice, eat meat, roti, beaten rice, grams, fish, cake etc. We use flowers, candles and diyo to decorate our room, house and gate. We celebrate the festival with much gusto.
It is interesting that we worship birds and animals during the festival. There different stories on why we worship them. But I think we are less sensitive because we show affection to animals only in Tihar. We worship them like god. When Tihar is over, we tell “shoot them, go away” or harm them. I am scared of them but I love them very much.
Now-a-days, it has been festival of other culture and religion. It has been a national festival. So, I love Tihar very much.
-Suvam Shrestha, Grade 3