Festival

28th of October

I’ve always liked celebrations, even if I’m horrible in remembering birthdays and anniversaries and all those days. Still I feel like we could do with a lot more celebrations in the west, and fortunately am I not the only one. There have been some lame attempts to make coffee and cinnamon rolls something to celebrate, but to change this for something that actually matters would be amazing. We’ve been celebrating brothers and sisters today.

The celebration started off two days ago with holiday from school, which led to chaos in the orphanage. There were children everywhere, all the time. The tradition said that now was the time to combine singing Christmas carols and going for a classic Trick or Treat, which basically means go and disturb people with your begging singing until they give you something to bother someone else. The orphans were dancing and clapping to their begging singing, and many adults ended up giving money and fruit with a big smile on their faces. From my room could I for two days hear the gangs of kids pick off the area, house after house, to make the biggest profit.

Today then was the end of this celebration and that meant Tikka time. The Tikka being the dot on your forehead, meaning a little bit of everything depending on context, or possibly I just misunderstood this as well. Shila had since a week ago invited me to join her for this ceremony and as the sometimes respectful person I am, was I there on time. Apparently is it the most affective to get your Tikka at 11.55 but what it did could no one tell me. It was still very important that the ceremony began at 11.55 sharp. Sort of.

The ceremony involved a lot of circles of what I guess was holy water, oil combed in your hair and strange local hats. It was kind of enjoyable, all thou I did look like I was in pain through the entire procedure said those watching it. The part that felt most important was the actual coloring of your forehead, which can easily be described as just putting the colors on the forehead. To be a bit more precise would I also mention the person who had to hold you down while doing it, like it was some kind of torture, the mess the colors made everywhere, the good smell of whatever rice-based paste that was smeared on first and the big spoon of red rice that put the last touch on the decoration. First after this we got to eat.