Wow!!! What a day!! Today is marks one of the many festivals here in Nepal. This one's called Gai Jatra..Gai (is Nepali for cow) and Jatra ( is journey). There are many reason for this "celebration". This all began when king Pratap Malla & his queen lost their son. The queen was so grief stricken that in order to console her, the people decided that one person from each household that had lost a loved one that year come before the queen.
It is also said that to make the queen laugh again, the people came up with creative ideas, like cross dressing, poking fun at politicians or highly ranked people,wearing costumes,etc. So, during the procession, the cow or a symbol of the cow leads at the front and the others carry a long bamboo pole adorned with Black cloth for the women and white for male pictures of the dead and anything that can make the journey for the dead comfortable. Much like the Ching Meng back home!
It is truly a remarkable spectacle, I've never seen anything like it ever! And to top it off, throngs and throngs of people all over Bhaktapur...so amazing..the colours,sights and of course the sounds!!!
The more I am here, the more I discover how this country is still somewhat untouched by modernity.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment