Basant Panchami: Festival of Spring

Basant Panchami is a festival that has more than one meaning. It marks the beginning of spring ("basant" literally means "spring") and at the same time, it is a festival dedicated to Saraswati, Goddess of knowledge, wisdom, arts and music. Saraswati is supposed to celebrate her birthday and at the same time she opens the doors of the spring season. People, mostly women and schoolchildren, pay homage to the image of Saraswati and sprinkle the goddess' image with grains, flowers, fruits and sweets. To ensure success to all these offerings pujas have also to be performed to Ganesh, who decides about success or failure of all human enterprise.

Puja at Swayambhunath

A priest performing puja at the Swayambhunath temple. Puja is a prayer ritual performed by Hindus to host, honour and worship one or more deities, or to spiritually celebrate an event. The word comes from Sanskrit, and means reverence, honour, homage, adoration, and worship. There are many things that are needed for the ritual but water, flowers, fruits and rice are the main ingredients. Incense sticks, coins, a bell and different kinds of vessels are also used.

You can see a vajra on the sacred scripture. Seems like the priest uses it as a bookmark here. 

Life in a Nepali village

Namaste!

Majority of people in Nepal live in villages. On one hand, life in a village seems almost idillic: beauty of nature, fresh air, no noise and pollution of cars, organic vegetables and fruits grown in your own garden. On the other hand, life in a village means hard work every day. In Nepal you can find rather big villages with even specialized services like tailors or blacksmiths, as well as such small ones that have only a few houses. Houses are built of thick rammed earth or large mud bricks. Windows if any face south and west. Roofs are flat and built of clay laid on brushwood or stones. Very often there is no electiricity or running water.