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Half Of Nepalese Population Is Dancing On Streets Today
By KMT Metro Reporter
August 31, 2011: half of the Nepalese population means the Hindu women married and unmarried have been dancing on the streets and elsewhere in public from the morning today celebrating the women’s festival called Haritalika Teej. The Government of Nepal has granted a special holiday for the women only to celebrate the Teej festival today.
Early in the morning married and some unmarried women take showers or simply take a dip in the waters of the holy rivers across Nepal. Then they dressed up in the bridal outfits in red and visit the shrine to Lord Shiva and make offerings to Lord Shiva elsewhere in Nepal. So, today, the access to Lord Shiva is only for the women. Thus, men lose the rights to visit Lord Shiva to women today.
After visiting Lord Shiva, traditionally, women entertain themselves dancing to the tune of the songs sung by the colleagues. They sing songs expressing their troubles they have with their mothers-in-law and other family members, and the heavy household chores they have to perform every day.
However, in the 21st century Nepal, modern songs have taken the place of traditional songs and perhaps most of the urban women have no such troubles as the women in the past had had. So, we find women in their colorful red outfits have been dancing to the tune of disco songs.
Our women believe that if they dance as much as possible on the day of the Teej festival they will be born as angels in the future lives. So, women of various ages try to keep on dancing today as such as possible.
Married women celebrate this festival fasting for the whole day some even refusing to drink water for the long lives of their husbands. They believe that their husbands will have long lives if they could make the whole day fasting a success. Unmarried women celebrate this festival hoping to have husbands of their choice.
Our scholars have linked this Teej festival with the marriage of Parvati with Lord Shiva. Parvati wanted Lord Shiva for her spouse from her early life but when she came of age, her parents wanted to give her in marriage to Lord Vishnu. Certainly, Parvati was upset very much but she could not tell her parents about it but her friends find the reasons for her mental distress and take her to the place where her parents could not find her and let her sit fasting for several days meditating on Lord Shiva. Parvati succeeded in her mission and got married to Lord Shiva. Since then, Nepalese women have set the tradition of celebrating the Teej festival.
On the eve of this festival women eat as much as possible. Following the tradition, women can continue to eat until the night breaks out. Thereafter, they stop eating and then it is time for them to take showers or go to the nearest river or stream and take a dip in the waters.
Then, they visit the nearest shrine to Lord Shiva. In Kathmandu, women have stood in line for three houses to reach Lord Pashupati at Chabahil. About three hundred women have fainted due to dehydration and hot sun there today. However, hundreds if not thousands of women have continued to line up for the access to Lord Pashupati: one of the many names of Lord Shiva; many more have continued to dance at various places on the premises of the temple to Lord Pashupati. Other women have continued to dance on the streets or on courtyards elsewhere in Nepal today.
Nepalese women will break their fast in the evening after presenting the blessing called ‘prasad’ of Lord Shiva to their husbands. First any married woman needs to offer ‘prasad’ to her husband and then to other male members of the family before she breaks the fast.
