Tihar

Dashai has been very enjoyable,we gather together at home and put tika  to youngers and enjoy feast.Today is the second day after Dashai,there are still guests who are coming and meeting families and relatives for tika of Dashai till Purnima or full moon.Anyway ,another festival is immediately after Dashai that is Tihar.

Tihar is a five-day-long festival celebrated in Nepal same as Deepawali celebrated by the hindus.The festival is celebrated from Trayodashi of Kartik Krishna to Kartik Shukla Dwitiya every year. Tihar in general signifies the festival of lights, where diyas are lit both inside and outside the houses to make it illuminate at night. The five-day festival is considered to be of great importance as it shows reverence to not just the humans and the Gods, but also to the animals like crows, cows and dogs who maintain an intense relationship with humans.

The first day of the festival is called Kaag Tihar. Crows and ravens are worshiped by offerings of sweets and dishes placed on the roofs of houses. The cawing of crows and ravens symbolizes sadness and grief in Hinduism, so devotees offer crows and ravens food to avert grief and death in their homes.

The second day is called Kukur Tihar (worship of the dogs). Dogs, which are believed to be messengers of Lord Yamaraj, the God of Death, are worshiped once each year on this day. People offer garlands, tika and delicious food to dogs and acknowledge the cherished relationship between humans and dogs. This day is also observed as Narka Chaturdashi.

The third day is the most important of all and is called Laxmi Puja where people worship cows. In Hinduism, cow signifies prosperity and wealth. In ancient times people benefitted a lot from the cow. Thus on this day people show their gratefulness to the cow by garlanding and feeding the cow with the best grass. Houses are cleaned and the doorways and windows are decorated with garlands made of Sayapatri (marigolds) and Makhamali flowers (chrysanthemums).

In the evening Laxmi, the goddess of wealth is thanked for all the benefits that were bestowed on the families by lighting oil lamps (Diyo) or candles on doorways and windows to welcome prosperity and well being. At night the girls enjoy dancing and visiting all the houses of the neighborhood with musical instruments singing and dancing known as Bhaili all night long collecting money as tip from houses and share the bounty amongst themselves.

On the fourth day of Tihar, there are three different known pujas, depending on the people’s specific cultural background. It is observed as Goru Tihar or Goru Puja (worship of the oxen). People who follow Vaishnavism perform Govardhan Puja, which is worship towards goverdhan mountain. Cowdung is taken as representative of the mountain and is worshiped. 

From this day onwards Tihar is celebrated with Deusi. Deusi is mostly sung by the boys while the Bhailo is sung by the girls. Deusi is balladic in nature and tells the story of the festival, with one person in the group narrating and the rest as the chorus. In return the home owners give them money, fruit and Selroti. Nowadays social workers and politician along with young people visit local homes and sing these songs, and collect funds for welfare and social activities.

The fifth and last day of Tihar is called Bhai Tika and is observed by sisters applying tika to the foreheads of their brothers to ensure long life and thank them for the protection they provide.

Sisters make a special garland for their brothers from a flower that wilts only after a couple of months, symbolizing the sister’s prayer for her brother’s long life. Brothers sit on the floor while their sisters perform their puja. The puja follows a traditional ritual in which sisters circle brothers, dripping oil on the floor from a copper pitcher and applying oil to their brother’s hair, following which a seven-colour tika is applied on the brother’s forehead. Along with the seven-coloured tika, sisters provide brothers with Sagun, sweets, Makhamali (Gomphrena globosa) garland, and a sacred cotton thread of Tantric importance, similar to Janai thread meant to protect their bodies. Next, brothers give tikas to their sisters in the same fashion along with an exchange of gifts. This ritual is practised regardless of whether the brother is younger or older than the sister.

A legend has it that while performing ‘brother worship’ the messenger of Yama Raj came to collect the soul of the man going through ‘brother worship’, as the lifetime of the man has expired in the human world. However, a sister performing ‘brother worship’ has requested the messenger to wait until she completes the ‘brother worship’.

The smart sister invited the messenger to sit along with the brother and get the honor of ‘brother worship’. The sister did ‘brother worship’ so well to the messenger that he became very pleased with her and asked her anything she wished to have as a gift. The wise sister asked the messenger for a long life of her brother. Thus, she saved the life of her brother.

Another story about how the ‘brother worship’ has started is that Yama Raj has five days off, as Lord Vishnu gave the boon of ruling the three worlds for five days to Bali Raja. Lord Vishnu has tricked Bali Raja to go to a lonely dark world for his meritorious act that has shacked the heavenly kingdom of Lord Indra. So, Lord Vishnu has granted him to rule all three Hindu worlds for five days in addition to agreeing on guarding Bali Raja for four months. Yamaraj’s world is one of the three worlds. So, he went to visit his sister, as he has not visited her for a long time.

Seeing her brother, Yama Raj, sister Yamuna became so happy, she did not know how to welcome the brother who has visited after such a long time. So, she did every possible thing to keep her brother Yama Raj happy for five days. On the last day, before going back to his world, Yama Raj made the presentation of a unique gift to his sister in return for her hospitality. We believe that she has set the tradition of ‘brother worship.’

So, we call the five days of ‘Tihar’ as ‘Yama Pancak’ means the five days of Yama Raj. On these five days we do everything possible for keeping Yama Raj happy, as Yama Raj is going to judge our vices and virtues after our death, and treats our souls accordingly.Tihar is a time for fireworks and lights, and the whole city becomes beautifully decorated at night. On Bhai Tika there will be a big public parade where everybody can come out and celebrate together. Also, the water reservoir called Rani 

Pokhari will open for brothers who have no sisters; there they can do a puja to substitute for Bhai Tika. This is the only day that Rani Pokhari opens to the public. Another great tradition associated with Tihar is called ‘Diusi Re’, and it involves groups of people going from door to door and playing special Tihar music to bring the households good luck. Big bands of Diusi Re fill the streets and sing and play the special Tihar music. The households like it because it brings luck, and they give the musicians money and candy in return.

The main, staple food here is a dish called ‘daal bhat tarkari,’ and it consists of a mountain of white rice (bhat), a portion of stewed vegetables (tarkari), and a lentil soup sauce (daal). The tarkari is usually made from potatoes, tomatoes, onions, chilies, and cauliflower, but variations are possible. It’s served warm, is generally yellowish in color, and the sauce sticks to the vegetables. It can be spicy or salty to taste. The daal is a soupy, mealy, bitter, light green liquid made of lentils that is poured over the rice (bhat) before eating. Daal bhat tarkari is meant to be eaten with the hands. First, you separate a little bit of bhat from the big, hot, bhat mountain for mixing and quick cooling. You then pour some daal over your small portion of bhat, and mix in a couple tarkari vegetables. After mixing it well with your hand (generally right hand) by squeezing it around a little bit, you pick some up, cradle it in the first joints of your cupped fingers, bring it to your mouth, and push it in with your thumb. You then keep replenishing your mixing portion with more bhat, daal, and tarkari, and repeat (seemingly endlessly) until you have eaten more rice than you previously thought possible. 

Generally chicken and mutton,  these chunks are immersed in a greasy liquid with chilies and other spices. When in the middle of a meal, it is not culturally acceptable to refill your own plate (you eat with your hands, so your hands would make the community food polluted). Instead, it’s somebody’s job to come around periodically and refill your plate for you, and this person will always assume that you are much hungrier than you actually are. To keep from receiving more food, it’s necessary to put your hands over your plate and say ‘poogyo’ (enough/full/arrived). Dessert is generally a sweet curd, like thick yogurt, also eaten with hands. 

Sel roti is the main recipe of Nepali festival Tihar. Nepali can’t imagine Tihar without Sel roti recipe.

• Rice flour
• Baking powder (one teaspoon)
• Sugar, as per taste
• Vegetable oil for deep frying the bread
• Spices: fenugreek, cardamon, cinnamon, and clove
• Wheat flour
• Water

Direction for Preparation:

• To prepare this yummy dish, first of all, mix the two flours with some water to make a dough.  Properly knead it and continue to add a little water to make a liquid dough, which is a little bit sticky
•  
• For giving your sel roti that fresh and earthy aroma, grind together cardamom and clove add this to the dough. Also, add sugar and baking powder to the dough to make it sweet.
•  
• Knead the dough thoroughly to mix in all the spices, sugar and baking powder.
•  
• Leave the dough at room temperature for almost 3 hours. Now, heat the vegetable oil in a frying pan and put one small round pot at the bottom to give a round shape.
• Take a handful of the dough in your hand and gently pour it in the pan to make a circular shape.

Fini Roti is specially made during nepali festival. It plays an important role in Nepali culture during occasions like marriage, Tihar, Bhai Tika It is used in most of the festivals. It is very delicious. 
 
Ingredients required:- 

1. Flour 
2. Rice flour (soaked whole night and dried for a while in the morning and then it is grinded with the help of a grinder. Then, sieve is used for separating any big mixtures or contents. For getting a fine flour, it is again filtered with musline cloth.) 
3. Ghee At first 2-3 table spoon of ghee is taken in a medium sized bowl. 

Then it is mixed with the hand until the yellow coloured ghee turns into white colour.  Then a small amount of finely grinded rice flour is taken and again mixed with your hand to make a paste called ‘Satho’. 
Then mix flour with water on another bowl to make a soft dough.  Now satho and soft dough is ready. Lets get ready for making roti. 

• To make roti at first put sunflower oil in the marble to make a more fine roti. 
• Then take sufficient amount of dough to roll it in the rolling pin as much as you can in a rectangular shape. 
• All the corners end are cut with the knife to straighten it up and make the roti into fine rectangular shape. 
• Then finally the satho is taken and with your hands the satho is placed on the finely placed all over the roti. 
• Now the satho placed roti is rolled slowly from one corner. 
• Now the rolled roti is cut in mid.since the roti is thicken it is thinned with hand and elongated. 
• And then it is cut into small equal piesces. 

Now take a karai(Pan).  And place sufficient amout of ghee and heat it.  Before rolling the roti, on each side of the piesces are folded inside to make a proper shape.  Then this roti is rolled with a rolling pin.   Within the roti two vertical lines are drawn by knives as shown in video.  Then the fini roti is placed in the heated ghee and fried. While frying the fini, it is not turned another side. Instead It is pressed with dadu on every sides to cook it well. 
 
We can also make round fini. 

  To make round fini, Both the ends are inserted inside then it is made into round shape and dab the roti on the flour. Roll the roti with rolling pin. While rolling the roti, it should be rolled only from sides but not in middle.  Then put the roti in the hot oil. In this round roti, with the help of dadu the oil is placed on the roti to well cook the roti.. 

Anarsa used to be an offering for the gods and is usually eaten during Diwali. Anarsaa-roti are old fashioned sweet rice patties (resembling large cookies).  Rice flour gives this bread a crisp texture, and poppy seeds provide a pleasant nutty flavor.  The dough is hand stretched into circles and deep fried.The traditional sweet is freshly fried until lightly browned and stacked up neatly.  It is kept this way until all the extra clarified butter is drained from the patties, before moving into a decorative platter.  Anarsaa is eaten during festivals, family celebrations, and simply as a mid-afternoon snacks.

Ingredients 

Rice soaked for a few hours - 3 cups

Ghee (Melted unsalted butter) -1 cup

Sugar - 3 cups

Cardamom (ground) - 1 tablespoon

Almond nuts (ground) - 1/4 cup

Cashew nuts (ground) - 1/4 cup

Ghee (Melted butter for frying) - 2 cups

Lemons: 4 to 5

White sesame seed- half cup

Method

Day I

Grind soaked rice and sugar

Add ground cardamom, cashew and almond and mix it well

Put the mixture as it is to stay overnight, the mixture gets moist next morning

Day 2

Draw lemon juice in a bowl

Take a plate and spread some sesame seed and some dried ground rice on it

Take a small ball out of the moist mixture 

Dip you figures into the lemon juice, gently spread the ball (in the plate of sesame seed and rice) into the shape of a cookie with your lemon wet figures

Heat oil in a big pan until it starts steaming (make it real hot)

Drop Anarsha into the oil

Change sides and let it fry one at a time until it becomes golden brown

Take the Anarsha out when it is golden brown and stack it one on top of other (Place on a sheet of paper towel to absorb excess oil) 

Place it to be cool.