Dashain is right around the corner. As one of the most anticipated festivals in Nepal, Dashain brings families together. The arrival of Dashain also brings new clothes, good food, lots of card games, and the excitement of flying kites. The sky, usually filled with colorful kites, adds another layer of excitement to the festival. However, these days, the skies are empty.
I remember, a month before Dashain, being excited to fly kites. I would ask my father to buy me kites and run to the terrace to fly them. Not only me, but the kids around the neighbourhood, even adults, ran across the terrace trying to hold the string. The whole neighbourhood would turn into a battle arena, competing to see whose kite was going to fly higher while cutting others’ kites. The sky would turn into a colourful battlefield filled with laughter, excitement and friendly competition.
Flying kites was a part of Dashain - a tradition that every child enjoyed and every adult joined. Today, however, I look towards the sky. The sky is still the same, clear blue with cloud flakes. But kites? None to be seen. The rooftops have become quiet. The streets have become quiet. And the sky has become empty. The absence of kites in the sky somehow reflects how we are losing our traditions to this modern lifestyle.
There are many reasons behind the empty sky in the Dashain period. Due to the increasing use of smartphones, internet, and digital multimedia, young people’s attention has been shifted away from outdoor activities. They prefer staying inside their rooms, scrolling on their phones or watching movies over flying kites. Changing lifestyles, urbanisation, and busy schedules have changed the way people celebrate festivals. For children, entertainment comes from a screen, not from flying kites. While technology plays a huge part to connect us in countless ways, it may also be distancing us from simple things that used to bring the communities together.
But people might think it’s not a big deal. Time changes, so do people and traditions. But an empty sky is not just merely the absence of kites. It’s the absence of excitement people had towards festivals. It’s the absence of a tradition that brings communities together. It represents the gradual disappearance of shared memories and cultural practices. Festivals connect friends and families, preserve traditions, and remind us of our collective identity. When we stop participating in these small but meaningful activities, we risk losing a part of the cultural experience that makes our festivals special.
Preserving traditions doesn’t mean rejecting modernity. Technology and tradition can coexist if we give a little bit of our time and effort towards it. For those who used to enjoy hours everyday flying kites around Dashain with their friends in the past, running across streets, this gradual disappearance of such tradition is a huge blow to them. Because a tradition they once enjoyed for years means nothing to the new generation anymore.
The practice of flying kites will soon just remain as a concept, just as stories that we share to the new generation, just like how our parents shared their experiences to us. Maybe the new generation will wrinkle their nose or sparkle their eyes with amusement hearing about these experiences. But only we know how nostalgic it is, and every time we get near Dashain, we will look at the sky, expecting the sky to be full of colourful kites, just like how it used to be when we were small.
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