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Kathmandu Tuesday October 30, 2001 Kartik 14, 2058.
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Tika continues till Wednesday
Post Report
KATHMANDU, Oct 29 – Even as the Vijaya
Dashami is already over, people from far-flung areas are still busy visiting their
relatives to receive tika.
People continue to receive tika on their
foreheads from their elders till Wednesday, though the real day for the auspicious
occasion was on Friday. The government holidays end tomorrow but the biggest festival of
the Hindus ends in Purnima on Wednesday.
During the six days of tika, people receive
Jamara (barley shoot) as prasad, which has special significance during the whole festival.
The Jamara is planted in Ghatasthapana, the very first day of the festival.
"The Yabankur (Jamara in Sanskrit) embodies
the irresistible power of Goddess Durga," says Ram Chandra Gautam, professor of
Theology. "People believe that this power is not available in other flowers."
According to Gautam, tika can be taken from
Dashami to Purnima (the full moon day) because all the fifteen days are known as Durga
Pachaya.
Whereas cultural expert Hari Ram Joshi says that
since one can not finish receiving tika from all the elders on a single day of Dashami,
the occasion is extended till the Purnima, making it easy for the people coming back to
their homes from far away places.
"People also take tika days as the time for
sycophancy as people visit their senior officers on the pretext of tika," says Joshi.
"Therefore, in BS 2008, leader B.P. Koirala stopped to receive and give tika to
anyone as he considered it as the form of slavery."
Though the tika is still going on for some
people, the government offices are opening from tomorrow, bringing life to normal. The
government officials, who used to get a longer holiday during the festival, got a shorter
holiday this time as the government cut short the holiday by two days.
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