One a day
Kag Tihar is for the crow, which gets rice on a leaf plate set outside because it carries news, and the news is usually bad. Kukur Tihar is the one the world has seen photographs of: a tika on the dog's forehead, a marigold garland, and something better than usual to eat, for street dogs as much as house dogs. Gai Tihar honours the cow in the morning and Laxmi Puja fills the same evening, when the house is cleaned, red mud is laid at the threshold, footprints are drawn leading in, and every window carries a lamp so the goddess can find the door. The fourth day is Goru Puja for the ox, Govardhan Puja for the cattle shed, and, in Newar households, Mha Puja, a puja for one's own body that is also the Nepal Sambat new year. Bhai Tika closes it: sisters put a seven-coloured tika on their brothers, circle them with oil and water, and feed them sel roti and fruit.