Many countries have their own unique festival(s). Festivals are important since they let people meet their dear ones and also give them free time to relax. Despite all the sorrows and hardships it takes us to a happy mood. We in Nepal also have many festivals as ours is a multi-cultural, multi-religion, multi-ethnicity nation. Hindu, Islamic, Buddhist, Kirat, Christian, Shikh all have their own festivals sourced from their religion. Again, people from mountains, hills, valleys and plains have their own festivals. Holi, chhath, maghe sakranti, lhosar,  sakela, gaijatra, ghodejatra, Eid, Buddha jayanti, teej, tihar, dashain are some of them.  We practice our own religion and at the same time we also respect others’. So, any festival of any religion is celebrated by people of other religions as a part of their culture and daily life. Since Dashain is the biggest festival of all for Hindus, vast majority of Nepal population, and people from other religious background are also celebrating, it is socially accepted as a national festival. Rich or poor every one wishes to celebrate Dashain in a grand way. Mostly, families with younger children do not want to compromise and disappoint them. We have social pressure to maintain status. Those who don’t send their kids to school or get basic health care service due to financial reason also spend huge amount of money in Dashain. My understanding of the society suggest that from amongst the poor families almost half of them borrow from acquainted persons to celebrate Dashain and many of them become bankrupt in course of time for being unable to repay on time. For me, this is the saddest part of Dashain.

From the economic point of view Dashain increases trade but decreases productivity as people do not work, just sit at home, roam around, party and consume more than usual. This not only affects a person or family but also the nation. It finally leads to more trade deficit since Nepal is an import economy. Once in mid-nineties I received a friend from India as a guest to stay with us whole Dashain. As a professional from a fast moving industrial city she was shocked to see people not working for whole two weeks and everything is closed. I realized what she meant to say. However, with government cutting down Dashain holiday and people getting more inclined to work, business people are spending less time and resources for Dashain. Things are changing positively but slowly.   

Organic Happiness
Poor people Dashain is healthier than rich people’s Dashain. Rich people tend to eat excessive quantity of poor quality foods. Meat and alcohol consumption is very high. And those who have disposable money tend to gambling also which is not good for him/her, family and the society at large. I am surprised to see that even security agencies, sometimes, easily tolerate, even accept, gambling as if it is legal during festivals. Playing cards and langur burja is very common. Some people buy new and expensive clothes even if they don’t need them. We need to change this trend toward a temporary happiness and instead move toward a lasting and more organic one.

Festival Fever and Problems
When festivals approach, every one switches to festival mood. Shopping, families and friends gathering, traveling within and outside country, gambling etc take over every one’s wisdom. Pressure from relatives, friends and neighbours also hammer their head. People become insane in a way. They lose common sense and go onto decide unwisely. They tend to forget their own real status. It happens not only in Nepal. In China, during this year’s chunyun or spring festival which is a New Year 410 million individuals travelled and made 3 billion trips. This is claimed to be the largest human migration during one particular occasion ever. When we observe the way people catch their vehicles at various cities to go their home for Dashain, mainly at the necks of Kathmandu we can imagine how crazy people are to go to their homes to celebrate Dashain.  A survey done last year showed that pre festival spending during Diwali goes up by 40% in India. Similarly, a survey done by a business magazine in Nepal in 2015 showed that Nepalese household spent nearly 67 billion rupees during Dashain which was 9% of the GDP. How much of this you think was for necessities and how much was not really needed.

Wiser Solution
Problems are mainly two types, one: internal, something we can control or change if we don’t like and another: external that is something we can’t control or change but can manage or mitigate the loss or consequences. We, as human, need power to change things we don’t like. We even need more power to adapt with things that we can’t change. There is a huge inflation on price of every consumable and service that we buy during Dashain. State machineries, consumer right groups, trade associations claim that they are working on to control unreasonable price hikes which are over 10% officially and far more than that in reality, but in vain. There are always two sides in every transaction. Dashain is festival of trades and transactions in a way. There are always supply and demand sides. In another word, there are givers and takers. Various corporations and private sector companies supply goods and services needed for Dashain. Government agencies provide safety, security, enforce laws and rules. They all are givers if we call the public at large a taker. It is preferred that both the sides should be ethical, aware, law abiding, alert and conscious to maintain fairness. If one side is not acting as expected the other side should act more. As it is generally believed that supply side is more alert and responsible. In Nepal case, it is not so in most of the cases. So, we receivers side, public at large need to be more aware and act accordingly. 

For an individual or a household, instead of waiting for the government and other associations to get hold of the price and make their Dashain reasonable, decent and affordable, its better we find our own solutions which are more peaceful. It’s an internal matter. It’s in our hand. We need to change. We should start now. We must act, not only talk.
Avoiding special or extra consumption during Dashain is the best way out. I have a good collection of cases and memories of how we managed Dashain with limited resources and still kept our face and mind happy. Some of things we did were to wear old clothes, no special food items, one rupee tika, siblings tika money given to outsiders, fruits brought by guests to our home we took the same while going to others for tika. These things look simple and small. They are not easy things to do practically. We need big guts and support from the families to do different than what your families, relatives and friends are doing for long time. Very few can do that. We can do it slowly over a period of time. If we can’t do so we can plan and design some other alternative ways out. Even if a family or a person wishes to spend more for Dashain, they can still be economic by applying few ideas. Shopping way before time is one key to it. End of season sale for clothing could be another one. Using no credit cards also helps. Buying from wholesale is another. Try not to get new notes from banks for this Dashain and rupee 5 or ten to every one who come for tike your home. See how many of them still come next year. Your ones will come again. Those who don’t come are not your people and you are not supposed to make them happy. Its not easy but can be done. I’ve done it and it worked.  If you are known as a change maker in your circle you may dare to take many such new steps. Any one from us can be a change maker. Slowly it becomes a brand for you and your family. Families must discuss and take joint decision so that it becomes a 
shared matter.