Cultural symbols associated with Dashain on verge of disappearance

NUWAKOT: Chairperson of Nuwakot Consumers Welfare Protection Forum Indra Bahadur Pandit had been residing in Dupcheswor rural municiplaity-7, Shikharbesi until 38 years ago.

However, he said he was still afresh with the past memory that people used to decorate doors and windows of their homes with black substance ahead the Dashain festival. He reminisced that the homes decorated with red and yellowish soil was like a woman with kajal make-up.

After ascending to the headquarters from the ancestral home, such mind-blowing scenes have become a distant dream now, he said.

“The 2015 devastating earthquake had displaced the stone and mud-made homes. Several homes were constructed with concrete. The house structures are embellished with modern painting. It needs to go to the village to explore the homes decorated with natural soil colour. Even it is very limited in our ancestral place”, he narrated.

When one remembers Dashain, it obviously comes the image of swing. The swings used to be set up in the Chautari with Bar and Peepal trees. There was a huge flow of people from children to adolescents from different villages to enjoy the swing. Getting turn was difficult.
But now, the indigenously-constructed Chautari have been demolished in the name of rod construction and widening. It has resulted in the gradual disappearance of our culturally-rich swing, commented Chief of the Division of Water Resource and Irrigation Development, Hari Prasad Guragain.

“Road connectivity has touched almost all villages. Indigenous structures such as Chautari have been demolished in course of road construction. The tradition of putting up swing from trees is on verge of disappearance”, lamented Guragain, a local of Dupcheswor rural municipality-5.

He further noted that the culture of collective social work and in-kind contribution has become nominal in the villages. Government budget was expected everywhere for tinny development works. We can upgrade our roads on our own kind labor”.

There was a tradition of planting special paddy species for beaten rice which also reminds the folk of the arrival of Dashain. The smell of the beaten rice used to make the Dashain special. But now, there is neither the cultivation of the paddy of Ghaiya species nor the use of tasty beaten rice.

However, people leaving the ancestral place for educational and employment opportunities continue their culture of celebrating Dashain in their place of origin.

“Wherever our nuclear families reside we go back to our ancestral village to enjoy Dashain festivals” said Assistant Chief District Officer Bed Prasad Aryal, a local of Syangja. He further explained that Dashain festival and village are supplementary to each other.

Such concerns relating to the greatest festival of Hindu Nepali were discussed at a greeting exchange program hosted by the Nuwakot District Coordination Committee.