100 miles from Everest.....Thanksgiving!

Being British thanksgiving is something that has never been on our calendar, but in the multicultural expat community things often revert to the American way so thanksgiving is firmly on the calendar this year!! We naively decided to invite a whole group of people over, before realising we knew nothing about what you were meant to do or cook for thanksgiving, thinking google would help there was no panic until our trusty search engine revealed over 300 websites all claiming to have THE traditional thanksgiving menu none of which bore any resemblance to each other! 

When we factored in all the different menu options not forgetting the Canadians amongst us who had missed thanksgiving earlier in the year and the Dutch nationals who were celebrating with us for the first time as well, we didn’t have what any one would call a traditional thanksgiving meal. That said seeing as some of the google suggestions included sweetcorn suspended in lime jelly and sweet potato mash with marshmallows we didn’t feel too bad!

Whilst as many things do it has largely become a commercial holiday in the west, but the church of Nepal has taken its origins and gather each year to celebrate and give thanks for the harvest, for the abundant blessings God has given them.  Watching people who have no home to return to, earn less than a dollar a day and hungry mouths to feed bring what little they have to share with one another and give thanks for all they have been given is an incredible experience.  Equally those that have materially but because of their faith have been completely rejected by all family, friends and banished from their villages, gather to joyfully give thanks to the God who is loving and good in spite of the cost, makes thanksgiving a very different affair. 

We didn’t have a parade, or the super bowl and no turkeys were pardoned but in gatherings around Nepal there was an overflow of humble thanks from some immeasurably grateful hearts.

100 miles from Everest.....Tihar!

At the end of October was TIhar. A festival celebrated over three days here in Nepal. It is the worship of the goddess Laxmi, the goddess of light, wealth and provision.  To celebrate, here in Nepal, on the last night of the festival candles are placed all around the entrance to your house and then leading to the place where the wealth of the house is stored.  Coloured powder is used to decorate the area outside your house and guide the goddess on her way to bless the household.

As Tom pointed out it would also be a good night for burglars seeing as every house literally lights the way to their most precious possessions!! That aside it is a festival that mixes some elements of Halloween, with crowds processing behind masked men dancing through the streets imitating the gods. Fireworks night, with fire crackers and larger fireworks let off  in the streets by children, and  Christmas with other groups of children doing the equivalent of carol singing around the local houses and shops in exchange for money.  For all of its strangeness it is a night when no-one minds that the power doesn’t work, and even if it did we wouldn’t use it. For once Kathmandu looks beautiful as it’s lit by thousands and thousands of tiny lights.