Crying fowl at Dasain

A market at Bhaktapur was doing brisk business on Saturday as people ignored physical distancing rules and flocked to buy fowls for the Dasain ritual sacrifice.

There were ducks, chicken, even turkeys for sale and buyers took them away in bamboo baskets, carrying them in their hands, or hanging them by their legs.

Nearby stalls were selling mountain goats, but customers there were not as many as in previous years. This could be the result of people’s incomes being hit by the Covid-19 crisis, and people turning from expensive four-legged animals to cheaper feathered ones.

There was one stall selling coconuts. Vegetarians, or those who do not believe in animal sacrifice, break open a coconut to appease the Dasain deities.