Oct 25, 2015, Saturday, Kathmandu - Nagarkot

Today was the Brother/Sister celebration portion of the Festival of Light.  Mohan (Big Boss Tour Operator for our Nepal trip) first took us to his mother-in-law’s home for some of the celebrations and an early lunch. 

Cracking the "knot"

One of the more significant rituals, as described to us, was “cracking the knot” to bring good luck to the house.  We both were having difficulty envisioning how one would crack a knot but it is all part of learning about new cultures.  Then they took us outside, placed a whole walnut on the door step and cracked it with a brick.  It's all in the accent.

Our celebration and lunch hosts

We then went to Mohan's brother’s home for more celebrations on the sister-in-law's side with a much larger group.  There were about six women applying tilaks (a vertical line of very colorful dots down the middle of the forehead) to a number of men, who in turn applied tilaks to the women.  Apparently they were all brothers and sisters.  (Or maybe in-laws).

The ceremony signifies a sister’s prayers for a long and happy life for her brother. The brothers then bless their sisters and treat them with gifts or cash. 

After the ceremony one of the women applied tilaks to us and the one other guest (Rosalind from South Africa).  We were then presented with trays overflowing with sweets and fruits as wishes for a healthy and prosperous coming year.

After all of the celebrations we were driven to Nagarkot north of Kathmandu Valley in the Himalayan foothills, passing some crowded buses.

The drive went through some beautiful farming country with many rice fields.  Many of the fields had been harvested and the rice stalks tied up as little "hay" stacks. 

Rice Paddies

The Nagarkot hotel (The Himalayan Club) overlooked a large valley with the Himalayan range in the distance.  

We had requested this overnight in Nagarkot to get some sunset and sunrise pictures of the Himalayas.  However, while the valley and foothills were beautiful it was too cloudy to see the actual mountains.  We did get a couple of decent shots tonight with some nice sunset color.


We were in bed very early in order to get up at 5:45 AM to try for some sunrise pictures.