Happy New Year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR from Nepal !!!

We wish everyone all of God's blessings in the new year as well as health and happiness!  But, guess what?  It's not 2011 here in Nepal!  That's right, it's 2067!  (As mentioned before, we don't know if we're really old or really young!)  Nepal follows the Bikram Sambat calendar, and the new year doesn't start until April when I'm sure we'll have our "real" celebrations!   There are still 12 months here, and they go from about the middle of each of our months to the middle of the next one.  Some of the months do not have the same amount of days from year to year.  Not sure how that works birthday-wise yet, but I guess we'll learn.

Here's the calendar I bought at a bookstore for 2011.

I think on top of Friday and Saturday is where it says the Nepali dates, which happen to be the months of Push or Paush or Poush (I've seen it spelled all three ways--the first half of January) and Magh (the last half of January) 2067.  I'm not sure exactly where Paush ends and Magh starts but I think it's Jan. 15.  The 30 and 31 at the top are the last two days of January.  Martyrs' Day (Jan. 30) must be the holiday of Shahid Diwas I see on my school calendar which is January 30 (or Magh 21).  (More about that when the time comes!)

Here is what the "regular" Nepali calendar looks like:

(You can see we'll have a holiday on Mar. 2, called Shiva Ratri.  I'll tell you about that at the time.)

At first I bought this cute calendar

in a nice little bookshop on this street:

The shopkeepers seemed a little shy and were very quick and efficient.  Later I realized that they were only holding their breath, thinking, "Yeah!  Our ploy to get rid of the old calendars worked!  Hurry, finish before she notices!"  Yes, when I got home, I noticed this:

Yes!  It was a 2010 calendar!  It had been right in the middle of the 2011 calendars, and I obviously was careless when I finally made my final choice.  Oh well!  Anyone want some pretty pictures?  They're free!  :)

Well, speaking of holidays, there are two I have missed telling you about.  One was on Dec. 21 (Paush 6) called Udhauli Parba.  I was told this would be a time to eat good food!  Just as we have our start of Winter on that day, so do they here.  This day was the festival to celebrate the winter season and the migration "downward" to warmer climates.  (At the start of Spring, there will be an "upward" celebration I've read.)  There are dances, music, special clothes, and of course good food!  :) 

I went to Kathmandu that day with another missionary wife.  Ramon wasn't able to go and neither could her husband, but we needed to go shopping so we braved the crowds!  See:

When the sidewalks were full, people walked in the streets.

And sometimes they (including us!) just squeezed in!  Lora told me it reminded her of being in Shanghi!

I felt like I was just being carried along!  My purse was across my body and my hand firmly gripping it as well! 

Occasionally we saw people in their special clothes

and sometimes we saw them with signs.  This group also had some drummers, but I missed getting them in the picture.

However, I did get the drummer of this group.

Hopefully Ramon will be able to come with me the next time we're in town for a festival!

He did get to go with me this past week, which was really nice!

We saw these adorable little ones so happily playing who looked as content as any girls playing with Barbies look.

The next day it was December 30, and the festival of Tammu Lohsar, which I haven't been able to find out much about, but I'll let you know when I do.  We heard that there would be booths set up where people could sell things and we did see them preparing for that.

That day is sort of a blur in my memory as I came down with some kind of Asian bug again--ugh.  Ramon put me on meds right away and I'm feeling better now.

Well, again, we hope and pray that everyone had a lovely New Year's holiday and that your 2011 is already off to a great start!!!