Once again it's great to be talking to you about Nepal while I'm here in Kathmandu. This week I enjoyed my first Gai Jatra Festival, The Festival of Cows, honoring the loved ones of families who've passed away this year. In this episode I talk about the must see festivals of the fall season, which you can see all right in Kathmandu starting in 2018 with Dashain, from Oct.9-23rd. This is the longest and most important festival in Nepal but it's not for the squeemish. Thousands of animals are sacrificed in order to bath the Goddess Durga in blood. The festival celebrates the victory of Gods over evil, good overcoming evil is the theme of the festival.
Every year Dashain is followed by Tihar or Deepavali, the festival of lights. In India they celebrate it as Diwali. It's my favorite festival of the year with people decorating their homes and businesses with rangoli art, colored flower, rice, candles and flowers. Kathmandu is a sea of flower garlands leading up to Tihar. The biggest night is the third night or Laxmi Puja when people pray to Laxmi the Goddess of Wealth for good fortune for the next year. The next festival and this year celebrated from November 13th for four days is Chaath, honoring the Sun God and his wife Usha. The main celebration area is on the Bagmati River behind the Pashupatinath Temple complex.
The main purpose of my visit this fall is to lead a group up to Everest Base Camp. I have an interest in a trekking/adventure company here in Nepal called Explore Himalayan/Sacred Trekking. If you would like to find out more about treks and other adventure activities in Nepal you can message us either on the website: https://explorehimalayan.com or our Facebook page:https://www.facebook.com/sacredtrekking/
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