Festival mornings are always fraught with anxiety for Mero Budda and I. I get frustrated because i never know what i should be doing or if i have some role i should be performing. Mero Budda gets confused because he doesn't have a clue what he needs to explain. He assumes all families give tikka, slaughter goats, touch each others feet and perform pujas every other day of the week.
My family don't have a lot of rituals. The ones we do have are pretty relaxed, gifts on Christmas morning, chocolate at Easter. There aren't any real rules about it and i would never put Mero Budda on the spot and expect him to perform Santa duties or prepare a Christmas roast.
Unfortunately my Nepali family don't seem to believe that people have different rituals in other countries. There is never any warning that a festival is coming. Usually we wake up and my MIL will say "oh today is [insert festival name] you need to dress Nepali". This usually leads to a panic because there are many levels of Nepali dressing and some require specific coloured clothes, which i never own. And is it a full on Sari event, will a kuta do or just jeans and a culturally appropriate top? The response is usually something like "oh just wear the usual thing you would wear to [insert festival name]." This of course is no help what so ever!
