For many Nepalis, Tihar is a time for family gatherings, festive lights, worship and shopping. For artists, too, the festival brings its share of traditions and personal rituals. But how they spend the holiday varies—from stocking up on puja essentials and buying gifts for siblings to working on new creative projects. Some, meanwhile, are finding it difficult to celebrate.

Actor Richa Sharma particularly enjoys the rituals and decorations associated with Tihar. She has already bought the essentials for the five-day festival, including items for Lakshmi Puja.

On the day of Lakshmi Puja, she plans to clean her home and office, make rangoli, welcome Lakshmi’s footprints and worship Ganesh, Lakshmi, Narayan and Saraswati.

Every year, Sharma buys brooms, lotus stems, traditional clay lamps and decorative footprints of the goddess Lakshmi. She prefers buying these items from vendors selling them on the streets rather than from supermarkets.

“I try to buy lamps, Lakshmi footprints, lotus stems and flowers from street vendors whenever possible,” she says.

Although she has never mastered making sel roti, Sharma prepares other traditional offerings, including malpua, kheer and colourful rotis, which her family enjoys. She also looks forward to driving around Kathmandu to see the festive lights.

Bhai Tika is equally special to her. Sharma enjoys buying clothes and food for her brother, who particularly likes receiving bicycles as gifts. She plans to get him something he wants this year as well.

Singer Alina Chauhan, meanwhile, looks forward to Tihar shopping. She has a longstanding interest in collecting silverware and enjoys buying traditional items such as khadkulo (a ritual vessel), karuwa (a water pot), oil lamps and jaladhara, a vessel used in Shiva worship.

Chauhan has not always been able to celebrate Tihar with her family in Jhapa. This year, she plans to perform Lakshmi Puja where her business is based before travelling home for Bhai Tika.

Her clothing store, Ramani, has also been seeing good business ahead of the festival. Orders have been coming in, with makeup products, sunscreens and kurtas among the better-selling items.

Like Sharma, Chauhan makes it a point to give her brother a gift on Bhai Tika. She usually buys him clothes and intends to get him something he likes this year, too.

For veteran actor Gauri Malla, however, this Tihar does not feel like a time for celebration.

She recalls enjoying the festival when her parents were alive, buying decorative lights and preparing for the festivities. Their absence has since changed how she experiences the holiday.

“The festivities no longer have the same effect on me now that they are gone,” she says.

The loss of lives in the Bhotekoshi floods has made this year’s Dashain and Tihar even more difficult for her. Malla says she will not celebrate Tihar this year, describing it as a period of mourning.

Actor Khagendra Lamichhane has a different plan. Instead of travelling to his village, he intends to use the holiday to work on a new screenplay.

“I am not going to the village this time,” he says. “I want to make full use of the Tihar break to write a screenplay.”

He plans to devote the festival period to writing while also worshipping Lakshmi and Saraswati. In previous years, he would spend Tihar in his village, helping bring in the Lakshmi Puja festivities and decorating the family home with lights. This year, his parents will take care of the shopping and preparations.

Actor Arun Chhetri, meanwhile, will spend Tihar alone in Kathmandu. His sister lives abroad, making it impossible for them to observe Bhai Tika together this year.

Growing up, Chhetri’s sister would buy him clothes he liked for the occasion, while he gave her money as dakshina.

The tradition will continue, albeit virtually. Chhetri plans to video-call his sister and send her the money through a QR payment.