Every autumn, Nepali families across the world do something that looks, to an outsider, like a complicated series of preparations: barley seeds are sprouted in a dark corner of the home, a coconut is worshipped, goats may be involved, and grandmothers sit in chairs while a very long line of family members bow before them to receive rice on their foreheads. This is Dashain — the largest festival in Nepal, lasting fifteen days.
Here is the version for the curious child — and for the adult who remembers the feeling of it but has lost the thread of what it means.
What the festival is actually about
Dashain celebrates the victory of good over evil. In the central story, the goddess Durga fought a powerful demon named Mahishasura for nine days and nights. On the tenth day — Vijaya Dashami, which means 'the tenth day of victory' — she defeated him. The nine days before the tenth are called Navaratri, meaning 'nine nights', and they are dedicated to worshipping Durga in her different forms.
Ghatasthapana: the beginning
The festival begins on the first day with Ghatasthapana — 'the establishment of the pot'. A clay pot (kalash) is filled with water and placed in a corner of the home on a bed of sand or soil. Seeds — usually barley, sometimes maize or wheat — are sown into the soil around it. The pot represents Goddess Durga. The seeds represent the earth's abundance and the promise of growth.
Over the following ten days, those seeds sprout and grow in the darkness of the room into long, pale yellow shoots. These are the jamara. If your family grows jamara at home, you have already participated in one of the most ancient parts of the ritual without needing to understand it: you have been keeping a living prayer.
Tika and jamara: the heart of Vijaya Dashami
On the tenth day, Vijaya Dashami, families gather. Elders sit. The younger members come forward one by one, and the elders press tika — a mixture of red vermilion powder, yogurt, and rice — onto the forehead of each person, and place a few stalks of jamara in their hair.
The red of the tika represents the blood of the family line, the bond that connects everyone in the room. The jamara, the sprouted barley, is the blessing of the earth itself, placed on the head to carry into the coming year.
What it feels like to be far from home
For families living abroad, Dashain is often the festival that hurts the most to miss. The tika cannot be sent in a message. The jamara cannot be mailed. What can be done is this: a video call, a pot of seeds on a windowsill, tika made at home and pressed onto children's foreheads by whoever the eldest in the room happens to be. The form adapts. The meaning does not.