Nepal’s beautiful Kukur Tihar Festival honors, celebrates and worships dogs and considering the Dog-Eating Festival in Yulin, China, we have to say that we are very glad that such a huge counterpoint for this barbaric event exists somewhere in the world.
The festival that celebrates dogs and their undying devotion and love for man takes place in Nepal every year, on the second day of Tihar, the country’s autumnal religious celebrations.
Based on the Hindu celebration of Diwali, Tihar is the Nepalese version of this religious festival, where people gather to celebrate the triumph of light over darkness, of knowledge over ignorance and the worshiping of all living beings, especially dogs!
Dogs have a are marked with a tika on their heads and are dressed with a garland called malla. On this festiv day where dogs are honored and worshiped, all of our furry friends are offered delicious treats by their fellow human beings and songs and dances take place in their honor.
Animals like crows, cows, oxen and dogs are a very important part of the Hindu and Nepalese culture, being considered sacred and people seem like they can’t show their admiration and the love they carry for them enough.
Seeing how happy these people are, and not to mention their voiceless friends, we would love to see more and more festivals like Kukur Tihar and we have no doubts that the world would be a much happier place to live in.
Yudhishthira, the King of Righteousness, is shown here refusing to enter heaven without his dog.
