The alarm clock started the day at Bright Horizon Children’s Home at 5.45 am. Still a bit tired, the children warmed up in the physical exercise session or got focussed in the meditation session. After studying for an hour, the breakfast was impatiently awaited. After a joint effort to clean up the dining hall and the dorms as well as washing their clothes, school normaly starts at 9. But not yesterday as it was National Children’s Day. Nepal signed the Children‘s Right Declaration in 1947 and this special day was invented by the King‘s mother in 1965. She founded many centres called Bal Mandirs, meaning „childrens‘ temples“. In those places orphans and childrens of families in need were taken care off, fed and educated. Children‘s Day is celebrated every year in September shortly before children go for a 4 week holiday to celebrate with their families and relatives „Dasain“ and „Deepawali“. These two festivals are the two biggest annual festivals in Nepal ….more on this in a later blog post next week when the festival has started.
What happens on Childrens‘s Day? Teachers throughout Nepal sing and dance for the children and entertain them with local songs and dances, such as the „Maruni dance“. This traditional dance was invented last century by the reigning Rana‘s. The noble Rana family took power in 1846 after one bloody night (the so called Kot massacre). The then Shah Kings lost power and the Rana‘s became a second „royal family“ within the kingdom. The real power was now with the Prime Minister and decreed in hereditary. The Rana family held power for more than a century. During that time, they built giant neo-classicism palaces for their family members (36 alone in Kathmandu), lived in opulent luxury while peasants were locked in medieval existence.
The Rana‘s had a lot of beautiful women in their palace – a bit similar like the oriental harems - but women were not allowed to dance. So, men had to disguise as women and do the performances. The children at BHCH were very amused to finally recognize their math and social science teacher in their perfect disguise.
The day continued with a lot of games and excursions in the close neighbourhood – a perfect day for the 300 children in Bright Horizon Children’s Home in Matatirtha.
(see a few fotos in the “more fotos” folder – we will post more in the next day)
Hi Anja,
greetings from sunny Berlin directly into another world… I am and will enjoy reading your blog and hope you are fine. What´s interesting to me – where there only men dancing on children´s day or did the female teachers dance for the children too? Maybe you get a chance to answer. Anyway -have a wonderful time. Lots of love,
Ulrike
By: ulrike on September 16, 2009
at 1:47 pm
Hey Ulrike, nice to hear from you. Yes Yes, also the female teachers danced Nepali traditional dance. The dance teacher of BHCH is a very skilled dancer. She only comes to the school to teach dance to teachers and students over the weekend. She is part of a known Nepali dance group. I would love to go to one of her classes and learn. Nepali dance is very symbolic and tells a lot about culture and tradition. Need to dig deeper into this and maybe post more details later
. Many greetings to Johann and Jens, big hug and good preparations for the move! Anja
By: brighthorizonnepal on September 19, 2009
at 8:53 am
Thx much for these first impressions from a children’s world certainly very different from ours… Same true for the Rana’s, apparently, who – I gather – have rightfully long lost their influence despite the dance and the tradition – you’re convincingly supporting – of having exceptional women around…
I’m not sure however about the imminent 4 weeks of family celebrations you’re mentioning – is it that quite some of the kids are just about to more or less leave ?
Hope I got that wrong, eager to read more, take care, Love H.
By: Karlsson vom Dach on September 16, 2009
at 9:37 pm
Hello Karlsson, thanks for your question. Well, you did not get it wrong: yesterday was the last schoolday at BHCH and most of the children started their journey today to see their relatives. Around 50 children stay at the school during the four weeks and will celebrate Dasain and Tihar/Dipawali with the staff at the school. A lot of the children are orphans or semi-orphans and very needy. Some of them live a two day travel away in the Himalaya mountain valleys. One girl told me she has to do a full day bus ride plus another full day walk (as there are no streets) to their relatives place. She will stay at the school this year. The remaining children have educational and recreational acticities planned with us. We will maybe go to the zoo, the botanical garden, the national museum in Kathmandu and visit some Hindu temples during the festivals.
Sending lots of greetings to Munich
Anja
By: brighthorizonnepal on September 19, 2009
at 8:48 am