It's puja time!

The national Dashain festival makes the peak of pujas! The cars again got blessed at the embassy to mark the holiday and are hereby insured against any bad happening by all good sprits. This can be seen as the Nepali time of thanksgiving, the monsoon is over and the harvesting is done, so it's a time to celebrate and enjoy good meals and time with family.

The puja is an interesting ceremony that seems to have become a practice by a mix of religions, although originally a Hindu ritual. Incents are burned and tikkas are given by a priest who is hired to makes sure everything is done properly. Normally goats and hens are sacrificed too, but we managed with a coconut. It can get messy otherwise! As you can see the cars are nicely decorated and drive around like that for days afterwards. The chancery and me too got blessed with a tikka. Namaste and happy Dashain!