Happy Tihar

Yesterday was the last day of Tihar, the four day long Hindu festival of lights.
The festival is absolutely magical. It is like the loveliest fusion of Halloween and Christmas. All of the town in covered in twinkle lights and each night we light hundreds of candles at the home which makes everything look so beautiful.
Every night there is so much singing and dancing. We bought a new drum for the festival and the boys are amazing musicians! When everyone is together, singing, dancing, and playing instruments, I feel like I am back at home at some wild drum circle! It is so much fun.
There are also lost of fire crackers, sparklers, and bottle rockets during this festival. And the boys, being boys, are ALWAYS exploding something. I love it.

Another important tradition of Tihar is playing Deushi, which is a game a bit like trick-or-treating: boys travel in groups to sing and dance at houses for money. It was so much fun! I spent over 4 hours dancing in my saree at various houses while the boys sang, played instruments, and clapped. The villagers absolutely loved seeing a white person in a saree; we collected an audience which followed us around watching all afternoon. In the end, we made over 5,000 rupees!

The second most important day of the festival is Laxmi Puja, the day of cow worship. Perhaps because I am the guest, or because I am the Didi (older sister) I had the honor of putting tikka on the cow! It was so cool. I stomped around the cow's stall wearing my saree, throwing blessed oil, flowers, and colored tikka powder all of the cow and her calf.

The MOST important day of the festival is Bai Tikka, which is the day when sisters worship their brothers. For me, this was the most special day of all. The boys at the home dont have any sisters. At least, they didnt before I came here! But because they have taken me in as their sister, we were able to celebrate a real Tihar.
The Bai Tikka ceremony was amazing and elaborate: sprinkling the boys with oil; throwing thousands of flower petals on everything and everyone (which was absolutely beautiful); adorning the boys with flower mala (garlands); giving them plates full of sweets, bananas, apples, oranges, spices, nuts, dates, raisens, and cil roti; most importantly, I put 7 colors of tikka on each boy's forehead.
At the end of the ceremony, the boys also put tikka on me!
The whole puja was so loving and so beautiful. I dont think I have ever felt the happiness that I felt at the end of the ceremony. I was glowing and floating on a cloud! It is hard to describe, but it is a bit like the best, best, best, most genuine, most beautiful Christmas morning ever.

*The local FM radio station reported a story about Tihar at the boys orphanage this year. A reported asked one of the boys what they usually do for Tihar, since they dont have any sisters. He replied "usually the staff gives of tikka and presents, but this year we have three sisters who we love and who are going to give us tikka!" All the boys were so excited for Tihar. It has been the most amazing, most heartwarming thing!