Happy Tihar 2012

Traditional oil lamp called diyo (Photo : Rohit Saxena)

Tihar is festival of Lights and celebrated by Hindus all over the world. It is second great festival after Dashain in Nepal. Also called the Yampanchak (5 days of Yamaraj: the God of Death) it is celebrated from Trayodashi of Kartik Krishna to Kartik Sukla Dwitiya of Hindu calender. Kartik is the 7th month in Hindu calender and generally falls on October -November. The biggest celebration is on the Laxmi Puja : the third day of the festival which falls on the new moon. 

There are several manifestation of  Laxmi (wealth) and Asta Laxmi (literally means 8 Laxmi) is one. The manifestations are called by different names like: 

1. Adi Laxmi (आदि लक्ष्मी) -The First manifestation of Laxmi 
2. Dhanya  Laxmi (धान्य लक्ष्मी) -Granary/Food Laxmi
3. Dhairya Laxmi (धैर्य लक्ष्मी) - Wealth of Patience/Courage 
4. Gaja Laxmi (गज लक्ष्मी) - Wealth of prosperity, good luck 
5. SantanLaxmi (सन्तान लक्ष्मी)-Wealth of continuity, progeny
6. Vijaya Laxmi (विजय लक्ष्मी) -Wealth of victory
7. Vidhya Laxmi (विद्या लक्ष्मी)-Wealth of knowledge 
8. Dhana Laxmi (धन लक्ष्मी) -Monetary wealth

On this day of Laxmi Puja  the night is very dark and it is said that Laxmi: Goddess of Wealth visits to those house which are clean and full of light. So, people are very busy in this festival to make the home and environment clean and tidy. lamps as shown above are lighted on each house making the environment very joyful. In Nepal people also came in group to sing the festival songs called Deusi and Bhailo giving blessing to house owners after getting gifts from house owner. Small children are more happy in this time as they can play songs and use firecrackers on this time. 

People are blessed with all manifestation of wealth : money, food, progeny, knowledge and so on are sure to be happy. On this happy occasion we wish our well wishers a very good time this year too.

Enjoy Tihar with this music video: