Best Time for Bhai Tika in Tihar 2023 (2080) Festival of Nepal

The best time for Bhai Tika is announced. Tihar is the 5 days-long national and great festival of Nepal. Tihar is also one of the major, biggest, and most popular festivals of the year in Nepal.

It is also known as Deepawali or Bhai Tika or Laxmi Puja in Nepal. Tihar is one of the most famous festivals in Nepal for brothers and sisters. It is celebrated not only by a few castes, ethnicities, and groups of the country but by most Nepalese people of all castes throughout the world.

Tihar festivals fall around October or/ and November. Tihar festival starts from the Kag Tihar (the worship day of the crow) and ends on the day of Bhai Tika (the day of brother and sister puja). Tihar now has arrived at the doorstep of the country.

Everybody wants to celebrate the Tihar very happy with a get-together with their family, especially brothers and sisters. The Term Bhai Tika is also termed as bhai teeka, vai tika, vai teeka, Bhai dooj, Bhai Bij, Bhartiya.

Best Time for Bhai Tika in Tihar 2023 (2080) Festival of Nepal According to Panchanga Nirnayak Samiti Nepal and Dharmodaya Sabha, the best time for Bhai Tika in the Tihar festival of Nepal is 11.37 Am in the morning.  As we know that Panchanga Nirnayak Samiti, Nepal is the authorized entrusted body for bringing out the Nepali calendar. It is informed that the best and auspicious time for receiving Bhai Tika is 11.37 Am, 10 Kartik, Senior astrologer and culture expert informed this information about the best time for Bhai Tika at a press meet in Kathmandu, the Capital of Nepal. He also added that the best time or auspicious time for Laxmi Puja is 7.25 PM.

For additional information, The fifth and last day of Tihar is Bhai Tika. On this Bhai think day, sisters put Tika on the foreheads of brothers, to ensure long life, and thank them for the protection they give. When the sisters give the tika, the brothers give gifts or money in return.

A special garland (often of Makhmali Phool) is made for the brothers out of a flower that wilts only after a couple of months, symbolizing the sister’s prayer for her brother’s long life.

Tihar is celebrated not only in Nepal and among Nepali but also in India and among Indians all over the world. Tihar is the festival of the Hindu pantheon.

Tihar is called in India as Deepawali or Diwali or Laxmi Puja. Diwali is more famous than the term Deepawali and Laxmi Puja etc. It is also referred to as Durga Puja. In the Tihar festival, Hindu Goddess Laxmi (Lakshmi) is worshiped.

Hindu people worship and respect the Goddess Laxmi during the Tihar festival. Goddess Laxmi is supposed as the Goddess of wealth. Tihar commemorates the victories of the god and goddesses over the demons. Tihar symbolizes the happiness after devil Ravan was killed by God Ram.  As a result, it is celebrated as a happy day.

As we know that the fifth day of the festival Tihar is called the ‘Bhai Tika’ or ‘Bhai Puja’. Bhai Tika is the best ritual thing amidst Nepalese during the Tihar festival in Nepal.

Bhai Tika is a mixture of seven colored tika. On that auspicious day, sisters put this prepared or purchased Tika on the forehead of brothers to ensure long life, thank them for the protection they give, and pray to God to save his life in the upcoming years.

Why you should put Bhai tika on the auspicious time?

Bhai Tika is the Hindu festival celebrated on the fifth and last day of Tihar. Bhai Tika is a very popular festival in the whole of Nepal. In some parts of India, this festival is celebrated as Bhai Dooj after a day of Diwali.

Bhai meaning brother and tika representing worshipping two combined give a clear meaning to what the festival is related about. It is the festival when sisters worship their brothers for their welfare, happiness, and long life.

On this day number of ritual are performed by the sister and each of these rituals hold significant value and reason. The auspicious time of Bhai Tika is important to uphold the same significance.

Myth logically, the tradition of Bhai tika has a very strong story behind it. The story says that one-day Yamaraj who is the god of death was out to take a young girl’s young brother away o the afterlife.

The girl was the Yamuna and her brother was very ill. The Yamuna spend days praying for a long life for her brother but the god of death eventually came for him. But before death took him she asked Yama the god of death to grant her some time to worship her brother.

After getting approval from Yama, Yamuna began to worship her brother. She first made her brother sit on the floor and circled him with a circle of oil and water. She then took a few sticks and touched the shoulders and head and elbows and knees of her brother and she breaks down like sticks. She then cracked a nut in the front door.

Finally, she put a seven-color tika on the forehead of her brother. She then fed her brother with what we call Sagun. Sagun is a mixture of curd and lots of fruits. Finally, she made a garland of turfgrass and Makhamali flower  (Gomphrena globosa) (globe amaranth) and put it on her brother.

Seeing such love for her brother and sister Yama was very pleased and Yama promised her that her brother will have a long life and that any brother who received tika on this day from their sister will not be dying on that day.

Putting tika on the auspicious time is important to reflect the same dedication and love that the Yamuna showed to her brother. Sisters do the rituals in modern times just as the Yamuna did to please the Yama the god of death and ask for a long life for their brother.

For starters, sisters always draw a circle of water and oil around their brothers as the Yamuna did. The Yamuna drew the circle so that no enemies of her brother would be able to cross it and harm him until the oil dries out and water is for the friends to come in.

This is done by sisters at the time when the Yamuna did to reflect the same intention reason and protectiveness toward their brothers.

What the Yamuna did next took a few sticks and touched every shoulder, head, elbow, and knee and broke the sticks down. The reason she did so was to pray to the gods that her brother remained strong in his head to make a better decision and strong in his shoulders to carry the heavy burdens of life and knees and elbow to be able to work hard and earn a living.

And she broke down the sticks to show that anyone who troubles her brother would be her brother’s enemy and they will break down like those sticks.

Sisters for their brother crack a nut in the front door of their house. This was also done by the Yamuna and this was to serve the purpose of protecting her brother.

She prayed that her brother’s troubles would be crushed like the nut before they could harm her brother and feeding her brother the fruit part of the nut implies that the protection she prayed for will forever protect him.

This is also taken as a significant part of the Bhai Tika festival because this revolves around the idea of love and protection of sisters towards their brothers. The ritual is also performed in time to reflect the time of the Yamuna, at which time death was a guest in her house and she pleased him to give her brother a long life. This is reflected by the sisters on the day of Bhai Tika.

The next reason to celebrate Bhai Tika at the auspicious time is another ritual is putting a seven-colored tika on her brother’s forehead. These seven colors represent the fortunes and luck on the side of the brother.

This tika also symbolizes increased happiness and change toward the greater good. The tika signifies that any changes made by tides of time to life would take a positive direction and the diversity of life will be as colorful and optimistic as the seven colors.

It is the reflection of rainbows and it represents anything new that will happen to the brother will give him a better experience and make him a better human. This is done by the sisters showing their wish to see their brothers happy and having progress in their life.

There is also a culture of putting a paste of turfgrass made by grinding on the forehead of the brothers before putting a tika on it. This is to signify that the turfgrass remains intact and doesn’t easily fade away which will make the tika last longer.

And when the tika lasts longer it will imply that the happiness and optimism that the tika signifies will also last a long time in the life of the brother.

Then as the Yamuna did sisters feed their brothers with curd and fruits mixed up together called Sagun. Saguns are considered to be the bringers of good luck. Any work started by having Sagun will be successful.

Praying for the success of the life of their brothers, and sisters feed them, Sagun. It is also true that it has a nutritious value and can help in digestion.

Finally, brothers are worn the garlands of Makhamali and turf grass by their sisters. This is done by the Yamuna because both turf and the Makhamali flower do not wilt or fade away easily and they remain as they are for a very long time.

By this Yamuna prayed the life of her brother to be long as it can just like these flowers survive as long as possible. The garland is also a symbol of ensuring prosperity and happiness throughout the life of the brother.

The garland is also made symbolically the bonding between brother and sister and sister wishing their prosperity and happiness.

As a part of the feeding items, lots of fruits and dry nuts, and dry foods are offered by the sister to the brother. All these foods are piled in the common household tool made of Bamboo called Naglo.

This food palate consists of walnut, pistachio, almond, cardamom, cloves, and fruits such as apples, oranges, bananas, tangerines, etc. these items are given to brother and sister as well to sisters by brother symbolizing the nutritional value in life.

Also, Naglo signifies the importance of basic equipment in life. This is done so because the sisters pray that their brothers would not have any problems regarding such important items of everyday life.

All these are previously worshipped and thanked for in the Laxmi Puja so it can also be taken as a Prasad of Goddess Laxmi who ensures prosperity and wealth in our life.

The link of the mythological reason is also with Lord Krishna who after defeating the demon Narakasur for which Diwali or Deepawali is celebrated went to his sister Subhadra. Listening to the battle with the great demon, sister Subhadra put a tika on Lord Krishna’s forehead. She gave a warm reception to her brother showcasing love and protection towards her brother on this same day.

Furthermore, legends say that God Mahavir who found enlightenment or nirvana had a brother and on his quest left his home which made his brother Raja Nandivardhan very sad.

Their sister Sudarshana then confronted Raja Nandivardhana and said the importance of knowledge and showed deep care towards brothers from their sisters. This was done on the auspicious day of Bhai Tika.

Thus, we can basically say that Bhai tika needs to be celebrated at an auspicious time because every ritual that is performed in the celebration is done for a reason.

Every ritual has a positive impact and each of the rituals is equally significant. Also, lots of historical and mythological reasons coincide with each other. It is important to reflect all those values that history and myths represent to correctly value the tradition of Bhai Tika and to have the positive effect of a such great day in the life of brother and sister.

And the auspicious time is when all these events actually took place. Coinciding with such mythical and historical events is one of the reasons why Bhai tika must be done at an auspicious time.