King Gone

Sorry to be late to this party, but the most ironic of festivals was celebrated Saturday in Nepal.

According to Nepalese sources, No Moon Day of Bhadra (i.e., Nepal's Father's Day) fell this year on August 30 — wikipedia schedules it for later in September. What made this year's papa party most interesting was that fathers were honored in the context of a new government.

The Maoists were democratically elected mid-August. Their path to power — with their pledge to find a Nepalese way of combining the best of their culture with lessons gained from watching China progress — and their succession to the royal family was paved by Crown Prince Dipendra, who massacred his father, King Birendra, and the rest of the royal family because they denied his desire of bride choice.

So the Nepalese honored the dead fathers, fêted the live ones and gave all dads who think of themselves as kings of the castle something to consider regarding what a Father's Day really means.