The ritualisation of collective memories

As festivals become cultural practices with prescribed rituals, their socio-economic origins are forgotten.

On the fourth day of the five days Tihar festivities , an enterprising person had fastened an ox to a temple pillar for the convenience of worshippers. Perhaps the bovine was transported from somewhere outside of Kathmandu Valley in a truck and then tethered by the side of a Shakta shrine close to a busy street. The ox appeared dazed, and its eyes looked glazed as it tried to yank some marigolds off garlands that the worshippers had put around its neck.