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Kathmandu Saturday November 10, 2001 Kartik 25, 2058.
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With
advent of Tihar, Kathmanduites prepare for shopping
By Perina Pathak
KATHMANDU, Nov 9 - With only a couple of days left for the
Tihar (Dipawali) festival, the second greatest festival of the Hindus after Dashain, the
Kathmanduites are busy in shopping.
The shopping areas in the heart of Capital such as Ason,
Indrachowk and New Road look busier these days as more people are thronging these places
for the Tihar festival shopping flower garlands, candles, electric lights, dry fruits,
sweets, ghee and oil, among host of other items.
Shopkeepers are busy selling different items and luring
customers and passers-by toward their shops as they consider this month to be the prime
time for business. The two biggest festivals, viz, Dashain and Tihar fall in this month.
As new clothes are associated with Dashain, delicious food,
colourful candles and home decoration are synonymous to Tihar or Deepawali. People believe
that by decorating their houses, they can attract Laxmi (Goddess of Wealth) towards them
and they will never be short of money in life.
"I am buying all kinds of decoration materials for my
house," says Raman Chaudhary, who was buying four dozens of Makhamali and Jari
garlands each in the Kel Tole alley, Ason Chowk.
Beside decorative materials, dry fruits are the most
essential and largely sold items among others. Jeevan Kapali, a dry fruit wholesaler at
Indrachowk says, "Established wholesalers are making, on an average, daily sale
between Rs 100 and 200 thousands and the new ones are selling between Rs 10 to Rs 20
thousand."
Among the dry fruits wallnut, cashew, almond, raisin,
cardamom, dry coconut and chhoda are sold in large quantities. Among them, wallnuts are
considered to be the most essential dry fruit required for the Bhai Puja (brother
worship).
According to shopkeepers, they sell on an average of 100-200
kilograms wallnuts every day during the Tihar festival.
Besides big shops and wholesellers situated at Indrachowk and
Ason, small street vendors in the areas also make good money during Tihar. "It has
been a week that I am earning Rs 200-400 every day," remarks Jeeban Gurung, selling
various colour tika packets and colourful paper crafts in the street.
Tihar is also known as the festival of light. In Tihar people
decorate their houses with electric light, oil lamp and candles to attract the Goddess of
Wealth Laxmi. Nowadays, instead of oil lamps people have started using electric light or
candles.
One of the candle sellers at Ason Chowk reveals that he
sells, on an average, candles worth around Rs 500-600 thousand every year, only during the
Tihar festival.
Sixty-seven years old Dev Ratna Chitrakar, who has been
making candles since 1953, says people started buying candles only after the year1970.
"Nowadays, people have started using candles instead of oil lamps, so there is a big
sale in the recent years," Chitrakar says.
These days busy market places are lavishly decorated to
attract customers. Almost all the shops look bright and electric lights, garlands,
colourful papers and craft papers are used to decorate the shops.
There is also a tradition of buying new kitchenware and/or
gold items to worship Goddess Laxmi during Tihar. So Pragya and her mother Rekha Sharma,
were busy selecting jewelry items for puja in a jewelry shop in Ason.
" I used to buy one steel or brass utensil, but this
year I have planned to buy a locket with the print of Goddess Laxmi," says Rekha.
The most important part of the festival is sweets, which are
eaten as prasad of Goddess Laxmi. Some prefer to buy ready-made sweets from shops situated
in every nook and corner of the Capital city. Some people prefer to make sweets in their
own houses.
Sweet shops also try their level best to attract customers to
their shops by displaying the sweets of various shapes and sizes.
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