Until 5 to 10 years ago we never heard of mehandi and rangoli in mainstream nepali culture. But now every ram, shyam and ghanshyam is doing it. Why are we so much into leaving our nepali culture and embracing indian culture? Is it because of hindi movies or is Modi brainwashing innocent nepalis with his sweet talks?

फेसबुकले गर्दा बिचराहरु कोम्पीतिसन गर्नु पर्यो नि त कसले सबभन्दा राम्रो बनाउछ भनेर | मन नलागी नलागी पनि फेसबुकमै राख्नलै भएपनि बनाऊनु त पर्यो | फेसबुक मात्रै नभएको भए के हुन्थ्यो होला | कसले हेर्दिने त्यो सजावट |

Went back home yesterday and found holy moly rangooli in my doorway, colors fascinates me – and more than that I was absolutely overjoyed seeing my 5 year old who was involved making it. Gentlemen, have a nice weekend with Happy Tihar/Dipawali/Diwali/Laxmi Puja/Kali Puja/ Bhai Puja and with every puja to all in Sajha.

Agreed 100% @Alias_ . Right now I am re-living what we used to do in Tihar 10-15 years back. Back then we used to purify our entrance to home with cow dung, light home with candles. we still had mandap that time as well. It has become a little more colorful with rangoli stuff, that's it. And adaptation to good/beautiful stuff is not bad imo. Even the culture we are following must have evolved and changed in due course of time. So, no big deal, learn to enjoy, embrace happiness and love.

Aba gai ko gober lay ghar bhari lepera tihar manauney kuro ni ayena ni , bartaman parepechyaa ma! Gotta change with time and technology too. Aba uhilay ta electric batti balney ni chalan thiyena , bhannai parney ho bhane!!! Tetra mithai ka parikaar ni thiyena, aadunik machine lay bana chocolate ni thiyena.culture is transfering things, yeta uta bhai ra huncha ongoing with time and location where you are living.

Kiddo,
Yes we probably celebrate Tihar differently than how our ancestors celebrated it. But different is not synonymous to copying something. Our practices can evolve according to our culture, time, needs and more importantly our imagination. We can change our ways of doing something but that is not the issue here. The issue here is about completely copying practices that are foreign to our traditions.
For example, how would you react if nepalese one day start celebrating Halloween in Nepal? Halloween could be fun - dressing up, gathering with friends, tick or treats and a party to finish it off.

We have Halloween too, it's called "gathamuga" only thing is that we don't wear costumes (newars celebrate it) , but nowadays different clubs have Halloween party wid costumes (I heard so ) in Nepal , you know the youngsters ....

@Hurray
My question on whether you are following your ancestral rituals was targetted to those who have claimed the authority to dictate how Tihar was done and should be done.

I understand your POV. I also don't like seeing things bluntly copied. But then I wonder whether that is necessarily a bad thing or not. Lets put the argument that you have the freedom to chose how you want to celebrate your festival aside. Let's look at it from cultural longevity standpoint. We could chose to continue doing something exactly the way it was done or we can improvise it a little bit and make it more suitable to how we like it. That's how I see Rangoli. Rangoli is not Tihar nor is it replacing Tihar. If it is made a part of what we do in Tihar, why not? If it brings family together (see Junglebook's post), why not? If it makes us happy, why not? Besides, isn't culture and ritual all created from the society? Why can't society modify/enhance it?

You brought up a point about Halloween. Should we start criticizing people who celebrate Halloween or Thanksgiving now?

One last thing, Rangoli not a novel concept. Decorating the entrance was always part of Tihar. It just got "enhanced" more now, via Rangol

kiddo को कुरामा सहमति जनाउदै मेरो अर्को थ्रेड मा लेखेको कुरो यहाँ paste गरम है त :

"छोटो समयलाई हेर्दा कतै bolloywood फिलिम ले नेपाली संस्कृति ढाके जस्तो देखिएपनि culture भन्ने कुरो सबै ठाउँमा changing भै राखेको छ | भारतमै पनि फिलिम टेली-फिलिम जस्तै सबै ले गर्दैनन् , अनि नक्कल गर्नेले त्यहाँ पनि गर्छन यहाँ पनि गर्छन | हाम्रै हजुरबा , हजुर आमा सानो हुदा कसरि तिहार मनाउथे, वा तिनका बा-आमा ले कसरि मनाउथे भनेर खोज्दै गयो भने अनौठो ठाउमा पुगिन्छ | मास्टा पुजा गर्ने हरुले त पक्कै पनि भाईटिका गर्थेनन होला | आफ्नो मौलिक अस्तिव खोज्न तेती टाडा जानु कुनै ठुलो कुरा होइन , गारो पनि छैन | तर कसैले गर्ने वाला छैन त्यो किनकि सबैले सजिलो बाटो रोज्छ |

मैले भन्ने खोजेको मौलिकताको नाममा अहिलेको सबै त्यागेर पुरानैमा फर्कन पर्छ भनेको होइन है | तर हामी एस्तो एस्तो थियोउ , एस्तो एस्तो भयो अनि अहिले एस्तो छौ भनेर युवा पुस्तालाई बुझाउनु पर्छ , आफ्नो जरो नबिर्सने तेसरिनै हो | तर यहाँ त 'म खाट्टी ...., म खाट्टी ....., हाम्रो चै कसै संग पनि cross breed भएकै थिएन ' भनेर मक्ख पर्ने मान्छे धेरै छन् | "

@hurray ,
अनि hurray ले our , our भनेर कसलाई भन्न खोज्नु भाको हो ? political map को चौघेरा भित्र बस्ने मनुस्यहरुलाई हो ? हिन्दु धर्म र तेस्ले अड्याएर राखेर संस्कृति , चलन चल्ती लाई पोलिटिकल map भित्र enforce गर्न तेती सजिलो छैन , बिसेस गरि १० मिटर पर ८० करोड हिन्दु आवादी भएको मुलुक छ, अनि तेस्लाई foreign (politically होइन है ) भन्न हो भने मैले माथि quote गरे जस्तै मस्टा बनाउन तिर लाग्न पर्छ | अस्ति मात्र होइन त यो भईस, त यो भईस भनेर ज्यानमा के के हो भिराई दिएको ? तेसैले आफ्नो जरो यो हो , तर अहिले एस्तो छौ भनेर तेसैमा गर्ब गर्न पर्छ होइन र, अनि फेरि यो पनि के-के हुदै कहाँ पुगिन्छ थाहा छैन |

मैले यहाँ बेकारमा नचाहिने लफडा होला भनेर "एस्तो एस्तो थियोउ , एस्तो एस्तो भयो अनि अहिले एस्तो छौ", "त यो भईस, त यो भईस भनेर ज्यानमा के के हो भिराई दिएको" लेखेको छु \ बुज्ने मान्छेलाई अबगत नै होला |

I understand what you are trying to say Kiddo. We can look and learn from other cultures. But we should not forget our own and we should in fact emphasize on it . That was my point. My observations about Nepal in the past few years has been that it is losing whatever is left of its identity. We as a country with so many ethnic groups have not been able to come up with one single identity that can represent us. What brings us nepalese together? What is that one thing that we all nepalese celebrate? Is there one single language we prefer to speak while still preserving our dialects? If we nepalese do not unify under one distinct culture, one distinct language, everything cultural we have known to exist within our frontiers will disappear. India is a powerful country. It has a very wide sphere of influence with its TV channels and movies. Hardly anyone watches nepalese television or listens to nepalese songs. Very few read nepalese literature or magazines. Newer generation prefer eating pizza, burger, naan, paneer etc and there has not been any significant effort to popularize traditional nepalese cuisine from different ethnic groups. Nepalese language has been polluted with vocabularies from other languages. It is a sad observation. May be I am pessimist but if it goes on like this, in few generations, the language we have come to know as "Nepali" will disappear, the culture we have come to know as "nepali" will disappear. And the culture is our identity.

Aba sambidhan nabhayeko desh, jahan party haru resort ma party gardai fursad chaina, yehi raftar ma arko 20-25 barsa samma Nepal ko rastriyeta baki hunchA ra bhanney kuro cha , timi haru dashain tihar ko kura garchau yaar!

These things also bother me. I am not against any culture. If I were in Saudi Arab I would have definitely celebrate Eid.
Since I live in US I do celebrate my way (Nepali style) Christmas and Thanks Giving.
Since last decade Nepalese culture has changed dramatically in Nepal. Nepalese especially ‘Pahadis’ have adopted ‘Madhesi’ and Indian cultures. But I don’t see other way around.
I am from Terai. My Teraian friends ‘Madhesis’ don’t celebrate Nepal’s biggest festival ‘Dashain’, they do, but as ‘Dasahara’. They don’t put Ratotika, no Khasi ko masu……etc.
Madhesi group also don’t do ‘Bhai Tika’ but our ‘Pahadi’ groups do ‘Rakhi’ Now it spread from Terai to Kathmandu.
Now Kathmanduties celebrate ‘Chaat’. ‘Chaat’ was not known in Ktm little more than a decade ago, same thing to ‘Bole Bom’.
The point is why we changing our own (distinct) culture to Indian culture. Can’t we celebrate ‘Mah’ puja (Newari) and other ethnic groups Rai, Limbu, Gurung’s culture and festivals instead?

Thank you for bringing this point up. I totally agree with Ghumante. This is not anti-Indian sentiments that we are talking about, it is more about our own culture. I was really ashamed when one of my Nepali friend at my work proudly told every body in the meeting " Diwali is one of our biggest festival and we do this thing called Rangoli and blaha blaha blaha." And funny thing this Indian manager replied her with a smile, as it happened his wife is Nepali, that he has been in Nepal and how he saw Tihar been celebrated in Nepal, and told her about laxmi puja the way we do. He used the word "Tihar". This guy Knew more than this dumb ass girl.
I mean even you go to India, Different states celebrate in different ways. This rangoli in Diwali and Rakhi is not something that we do at all. I get surprised when people put these pictures in the Facebook. Some people think they are doing something big by doing this. I am just waiting for that day when some Nepali dumb ass will start calling Bhai Tika as Bhai Dhoj. God!

How about the newars celebrating teej ? How about people doing baby shower in nepal?
They call it dahi chiura I think but dahi chiura called dhau baji is a newari tradition.

People with money they celebrate indian style wedding with mendi night, sangeet night and blah blah. Bahun chettris used to have ratyoli or whatever it is called. It been replaced by indian mendi night, sangeet night.

This is not the same as comparing with celebrating Valentines day, christmas day, new years day, baby shower.

It seems weird to see our authentic traditions being replaced by indian traditions. If we want to start celebrating Indian new years I don't have any issues but you don't want to celebrate Indian new year instead of Nepali new year.

I like to eat traditional Nepali food. I can manage indian food but I prefer the Nepali food better. That's why I like my own Nepali traditions better and I don't think it's a good thing to replace our own customs by following indian customs. Maybe people feel like hindi movie heroes and heroines by following indian customs but that's very silly to be honest.

Some people mentioned that customs change with time and I agree with them. In this case the customs are not changing with times they are being copied blindly to boost their misguided sense of feeling like those hindi movie celebrities.

For example purifying clay floors with gobar (cow dung) and red soil made sense for the anti bacterial and disinfectant quality, when modern medicine had not made way into the households. But thesedays we don't need to use cow dung anymore due to lack of such need. And this kind of change in cultural practices makes sense because it happens in it's own time.

Ok, Funtush. Reading your two posts, first on Rangoli and second on "khutta-dhogne", I have diagnosed that you are suffering from FBlues.
Fblues symptoms:

* You look at what your friends are doing from the posts.
* You get pissed because you are not partaking in that fun.
* You then vent your frustration here in Sajha, asking why people don't do the things your way?
* You find issues in minor things primarily because you don't do those things.
* You feel lonely and a little bit of jealous-rage so you find flaw in everybody else.

Haha Kiddo that's funny! You might be right but you might be wrong also so keep trying :P

Ok dudes, the point is it's like replacing hot dogs on July 4th with Tacos and our Dashain with Samosha and Lalmohan.
I Don't have problem celebrating other's culture. BUT PLEASE TRY NOT TO REPLACE OURS WITH OTHERS!!!!!!!
Isn't this unique when we make 'cows' paws' from main door to the our 'Sundook'? Do you really want 'Rangooli' in your front yard instead?

That's the point Ghumante. You talked about cows paws (hooves perhaps) from main door to the Sanduk; I have never seem that done before. We just paint Goddess Laxmi's footsteps from our porch to door. See, these things are not set in stone and not everybody practices Tihaar sameway; so stop telling people how they should practice it.
Btw, do you think our ancestors ate samosa in Dashain?

कसैले भन्छ भारतीय हिन्दुहरुले बिबाहको अघिल्लो दिन गर्ने "संगीत" ले दुलाहा अन्मायेको दिन गरिने "रत्यौली" ले बिस्थापित गर्यो | jpt भन्दिने ? रमाइलो गर्ने हो भने दुवै गर्दा हुन्छ | हजुरबुवाले भनेको अलि अलि याद छ , धेरै पहिले (६०-७० वर्ष पहिले ) पहाडकै गाउहरुमा पनि बिबाहको अघिल्लो दिन र जन्त गएकै दिन बेलुका दुलहीको घरमा अलिअलि दोहोरि जस्तो , अलिअलि कविता जस्तो चल्थ्यो रे (तेस्लाई के भंचन बिर्से , हजुरबा बित्नु भो , कसलाई सोध्ने ) | आखिर तेस्मा अलि अलि रंग/रस भर्दिये त 'संगीत ' भैहाल्यो |

अनि गाइपुजा बिहान हुन्छ , लक्ष्मीपुजा बेलुका | kiddo ले भने जस्तो आ-आफ्नो तरिका होइन भन्ने कुरो करीब करीब ठोकुवा गर्न सकिन्छ | त्यो लक्ष्मीकै पाइला बनाएको हो | त्यो आफ्नो होइन भन्नलाई पहिला सुरु आफ्नो के हो त भन्ने कुरो राम्ररी बुज्न पर्छ |