Diya ‘Deywari’
Deywari is the festival of light. Tharu community celebrates this festival called as Diya Deywari. It is generally celebrated only on day in a year in our tharu community. It is celebrated after the 15 days about of end of celebration of Dashain. During the festival It is time when the harvesting grain paddy should be cut and reap. Tharu are generally the farmers so they took Deywari a common festival.
As today’s people eat meat and sacrifice animals, our ancestor works in the field farms all day and in the evening time all family member bring what they have collected from the farm field and the forest. They collected local organic eatable things. They used to eat only typical food like what they have in their house like typical special tharu food Varity Dhikkri, mouse meat, Saag, small fish which is called as Sidhra, flesh and many more. They also used to go the river or pond to gather the crabs (GANGTA) and they would mix the crabs with a gourd and eat with delicious.
What I like about we tharu people is that they enjoy and celebrate any festivals with what they have. We tharu people have a joint family; it is very fun with all them enjoying and eating together. There was no light flickering, no sacrifices, and no conflict; there was only Diya Bati, peace, togetherness and family-hood.
Deywari is also called as the Dipawali and Tihar which we all Nepalese celebrate. Deywari and Dipawali have their own type of importance in themselves. Dipawali is generally celebrated 5 days in a year. The first day is called as Kaag Puja, second day is called as Kukur Puja, and third day is called as Gai Tihar and Lakshmi Puja, fourth day is called as Govardhan Puja and Maha Puja and the last and fifth day is called as Bhai tika. In Bhai tika is symbol of brother and sisterhood in that they put tika by brother and sister each other with boons. In particular on these days we worship Dhanmantri, a deity dedicated to our health and happiness.
Deywari/Dipawali; “The symbol of light of the Wisdom”
As we all know Deywari which is also called as Tihar is the festival of light and the light of the wisdom. I was thinking that it is Tihar, but why is Tihar celebrated and why are the lights flickering on Tihar? And thinking like this, I asked my father and he told me what he knows about this festival and while talking like that I got an idea to express my writing. Today’s people use the light and decor their houses with it. Earlier ancestors tell us that in particular Deywari is the light in our heart and mind. We all know that from one lamp the blaze is passes through to others lamps (Diya) and also all the light flickers are from a single plug. Like from one burn lamp (diya) the blaze is passes to other thousands or millions of lamp (diya). This shows the symbol of wisdom.
In the context of my family’s Deuta Puja; we generally have 9 god boons which are called as ‘Bhooth’ in tharu community. Khekri, maiya, saura, patanahi, patandevi, damandeura, dhanrajwa, bavna, churiniya these are the names of the Tharu our Deuta. Firstly the lamp is only burn for the Khekri, Maiya and Saura and after that, from that lamp, the lamp is lit in other diya by single Diya as well. As for example, you have a lot of knowledge, education and you can share and educate it to others and the knowledge emanating from you and acquired by them also makes their hearts vivid and bright. Those lights also show us the unity and also tell us to celebrate this festival together without any bad thoughts. As the houses are decors with the bunch of lights, no matter how much pain there is in the house, no matter how many quarrels there are in the house, at the time of deywari, those pains are hidden by the flickering lights. Those lights make us look more beautiful as our house is looking. Those lights make our hearts happy and also fun to watch those lights
Fest; Sacrifice of Animals Of course, in festivals every people sacrifice the life of animals in the name of the god and goddess. Did the god and goddess their selves told us to sacrifice the animals? No right! Tharu culture has many positive rituals. The main thing I like about tharu culture and people is that they do not kill or sacrifice any animals rather than the sacrifice their bad habits to the god. As I said our tharu’s ancestors used to give own self sacrifices like, they used to give small cut to some of their body parts by a grain of rice; to the tongue because from that day they will never speak lie, never use bad words and never speak unnecessary things, they also used to give small cut to their arms because from that day they will not show off their power, they will work with own self rather than inferior others, and they also give a cut to their upper part of the foot because from that day they promise themselves and to the god that they will not do any type of bad activities and they will walk and step to a good destination. My grandfather also used to give those sacrifices in the sake of the god. This ritual is generally celebrated in dashain but many people also do this ritual in deywari too. This is strong commitment and the symbol of good manner and social discipline. In particular these are the sacrifice for god and goddess not those fake sacrifices which takes the life of other creatures. Today’s people thinking are if we sacrifice animal for the sake of god then their all crimes and bad activities will be forgave by the god. Sacrificing animals in the name of god is not a good idea rather than avoiding those bad and dirt from the mind is the good thing.
Deywari; The sanitation Deywari is also the festival of sanitation and neat and clean everywhere. Every people clean their houses, temple, and public place, business department along with their heart from unwanted stuffs. Nowadays, Even though they do not sanitize it but the house and their heart looks clean because of those lights. That beautiful light covers the bad thoughts and wastes from house and also from the mind. They ray of the light makes the person individuals more beautiful and sanitized. Therefore everyone loves this festival and I love them too. Women V/S Goddess Lakshmi So in the third day of Deywari everyone worships The Goddess Lakshmi and also the cow’s Pooja right? But before worshiping goddess Lakshmi, it is better to worship Lakshmi’s and women of your own house. As we know women are violated in every aspects but from giving birth to children to the happiness and peace of the house is in the hands of all the women. Women can make the house heaven and also can make hell at the same time. So firstly we should have to worship woman from our own house rather than worshiping Lord Lakshmi. But I have never said that we should not worship Goddess Lakshmi but if we worship our woman then it would be better. Yes, Lord Lakshmi was a woman with a different power, but she was also Lord Vishnu’s wife and also a woman. She will never get angry if another woman is getting worshiped before her. In Deywari; To welcome Lord Lakshmi, girls play Deusi Bhailo in every house.
Girls play deusi bhailo but these boys have also started playing too. Even married women who are Devis not lakshmis, they also play this deusi bhailo for the sake of money. There is the saying that “Money is the reason we exist”. That is what is happening now everyone is dying and misdeed for money. In particular deusi bhailo is played only by girls now every boys and women have also started to play them but this is not a wrong thing, it’s just for the fun of the festival. Yes In every festival, every people wear new dresses and mainly girl need more and more cosmetics to look beautiful. Even some children quarrel with their parents that they need these types of trendy things and other etc. rich people can afford it but what about the middle class families does they can afford that expensive. They criticize others that they can have that but why can’t we but the price is high which they can’t afford it. I know it’s hard to earn money so in every festival we should be happy what we have. Earlier deywari was celebrated for the happiness and the togetherness because every family member meets up in a place. But now it has been change the festival turns up only for the money, people are becoming drinker and the other side boasts of money. Deywari has its own type of importance. Deywari can be celebrated as for the scientific reasons too. After the deywari festival, the climate change in to winter, cold and dry. I researched some scientific importance regarding dewari festival too.As in those days of deywari we worship Dhanmantri but people now spell them with dhantri ‘man’ is missing. ‘Dhan’ means money. You people think that this deywari only based with the money but why is this matter of health?
From those days, everything will be change as the climate will be cold and dry. And now people will also change their habitant from wake up early in the morning to sleeping in mid night to live healthy lifestyle. We know that every year same change will be happened in this surrounding, it could be anything. Tharu community is based on the agriculture. In this season they will plant cold season various vegetable and herbs because from those days, the lifecycle will be slower. But after a month they will not plant any type crops due to cold and dry season. People also got lazy in those days because the sleeping tendency of human became higher as the climate change. If we were other animals then we would do nothing just sleep but we are now human so we have already prepared ourselves for the new creative works to survive.
People easily got depressed and lazy from those days because the weather is like that but there are many activities which can control that laziness. If you are not energetic then, any type of disease can attack you and make you ill but if you are energetic with having thousands of bacteria’s and germs then they will never effect you because you have that power and energy to control them. Deywari is also celebrated because if you do not see the light of the lamp, you can wake up even after listing the sound of crackers. In the winter months, everyone should have woken up early before the sun rises up. The first rays of the sun should fall not on grasses or insects, but the first ray should fall on us. This is a commitment that before sun raises everybody is out to receive the first ray of sun upon themselves not on the ground. But these things are being ignored. Deywari is officially not a religious festival for tharu community but related to our way of living. We should celebrate this deywari with full of enjoyments, Well being, Peace, prosperities and happiness. Hope everyone day go fun as you all are.
Aishowariya Vidhiya Niketan, Dhangadhi, Kailali
Class :10
