Yet Another Festival
Its said that every day somewhere in Nepal some ethnic group or other is having a festival. I was lucky enough to be in the far west of the country whenwoman were celebrating Teej, pronounced teach.
Shops close and after the obligatory worship, dancing takes place in the street and lasts long into the night. The woman (and this is specifically a woman’s event) will have fasted since midnight and will continue until the following morning, when devoted husbands will give them food. Other than weddings, these festivals are the only times for dressing up in the bright red saris. Tomorrow they will return to the daily grind of eking out a survival living from little plots of land, roadside teashops or cutting and carrying firewood. Festivals punch a bright red hole in substance living.