The Teej Festival: Red Saris and Well-fed Husbands

This is the last festival I’ll write about for awhile. There are so many festivals here in Nepal, I can’t keep track of them all! Last Saturday we went to the Father’s Day festival at the Gokarna temple where there were thousands of people praying and giving offerings (puja) to the Hindu god Shiva for the souls of deceased fathers.

This week is the festival called Teej where women dress in red and are especially good to their husbands, and, if unmarried, pray for a good future husband. The Sunday before Teej (which fell on a Tuesday this year) was a big shopping day, because on Monday the women cooked tremendous quantities of food, the purpose being to make their husbands happy and to fatten themselves up a bit for their day-long fast on Tuesday. Only the women fast, and that includes not drinking any liquids.

If they just stayed home to fast it might not be that difficult, but many get up in the wee hours of the morning to go to the Pashupati temple to give an offering and pray for the long life of their current or future husbands. The only problem is that about 100,000 other women have the same idea and the lines to the temple can be well over a mile long. It may take 5 or 6 hours of standing in line, sometimes in the hot sun, to reach the temple. And when there is no food or water intake that day, it’s not unusual for some women to faint, so there are always medical personnel on hand to help out. But, on the fun side, after the puja at the temple the women sing and dance down by the river in a demonstration of sisterhood. Some of the old-school women will bathe their husband’s feet that day and then drink the water as a sign of submission and respect. According to a Nepali friend, that ritual is falling out of favor in the cities and among the younger generation.

Bonnie was invited to observe the Monday food preparation at the home of our Nepali guide and historian, Kabindra. Bonnie took some sweets (cookies and chocolate) and a drawing/painting set for his 5-year-old daughter. While Kabindra and his wife cooked, Bonnie played with the little girl, Sajanathala, who drew a picture and then labeled it “jorila.” It took awhile for everyone to realize that she had drawn a picture of a “gorilla.” Her English is still a lot better than my Nepali.

Our maid Sita, the short one in the photo, invited Bonnie to accompany her to Pashupati on Tuesday morning. Since it was a “girl thing” I was not invited. That’s good, because if there’s anything I’ve learned in my life it is not to be in a crowd of thousands of hungry, thirsty and tired women! They left before sunrise at 4:30 am and when Bonnie came home three and a half hours later, Sita was still in line with quite a distance to go.

Bonnie took some photos of the throngs of lined up women decked out in their red saris. She said that for relatively small women they’re pretty good at shoving and throwing elbows in line. Bonnie said it’s very similar to what happens when Macy’s throws open its doors for the day-after-Thanksgiving sale.

Before I left for work, Bonnie wished me a long life and then went off to the Fulbright office to see if they could help get our internet service working again. It’s true all over the world: a woman’s work is never done.