From tika to Tiktok: Nepali festivals in the digital age

Dashain, Tihar, and other rituals, once full of stories and presence, are now often celebrated through WhatsApp calls, Instagram posts, and viral trends.

I remember Dashain as a tender embrace. My cousins and I would race barefoot across the terrace, jamara (barley sprouts) tucked behind our ears, tika (red vermilion paste mixed with yoghurt and rice) still damp on our foreheads. Steel plates clinked under the weight of sel roti, stacked like golden memories. The air was thick with marigold and camphor, madal drums pulsing softly in the background. In those sunlit rooms, the family gathered without distraction, fully present, stitched together by ritual and story. My bajai (grandmother) would hum a bhajan in the kitchen and say, “These kids nowadays, what would they know of a Dashain like this?”