Festival season starts in Nepal with devotees honoring a living goddess
Associated Press
KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Nepal’s monthslong festival season has begun with tens of thousands of devotees pulling a wooden chariot with a young girl revered as a living goddess. Families gathered for feasts and lit incense for the dead at shrines. Men and boys in colorful masks and gowns representing Hindu deities danced to traditional music and drums, drawing throngs of spectators to Kathmandu’s old streets. The Indra Jatra festival on Tuesday marks the end of the monsoon and rice farming season and signals the dawn of fall. It is also known as the festival of deities and demons and especially honors Indra, the Hindu god of rain.
