Major Nepali festivals: Dashain, Tihar, and more

Nepal's festival year is anchored to the Bikram Sambat calendar, so each celebration returns on a nearly fixed set of BS months even as the Gregorian date moves. The big national holidays are Dashain (दशैं) in Ashwin–Kartik, Tihar (तिहार) right after it, Maghe Sankranti (माघे संक्रान्ति) in Magh, and Holi (फागु) in Falgun — plus Buddha Jayanti and Christmas as also-included public holidays.

Dashain, the greatest of the Nepali festivals, falls in the month of Ashwin (असोज, roughly September–October) and runs for ten days. Families fly kites, ride wooden swings (पिङ), and on Dashain Tika (दशैं टिका) — the main day, around mid-to-late October — elders place the red tika and jamara on the foreheads of younger relatives, celebrating the victory of good (Durga) over evil. Dashain is the longest holiday of the year.

Tihar (तिहार) — the festival of lights — comes right after Dashain in the month of Kartik (कार्तिक, usually October–November). Each day honours someone special: Kag Tihar for crows, Kukur Tihar for dogs, Laxmi Puja (लक्ष्मी पूजा) for the goddess of wealth with oil lamps and marigold garlands, Govardhan Puja, and finally Bhai Tika (भाइ टिका), when sisters put tika on their brothers. Houses glow with thousands of small oil lamps (diyas) across five nights.

Maghe Sankranti is a mid-winter festival in the month of Magh (माघ), marking the Sun moving northward (Uttarayan). People take a festival bath, eat tarul (sweet potato), khichdi, ghee and til (sesame), and many crowds gather at sacred river confluence like Devghat. Fairs and holy dips make it one of the most relaxed, family-centered festivals of the cold season.

Besides these, the colour-throwing festival of Holi (फागु पूर्णिमा) arrives in the month of Falgun (फागुन, around March), and Buddha Jayanti, the Buddha's birth anniversary, is observed in Baisakh (बैशाख, usually in April–May). Since each festival ties to a BS date range that repeats every year (e.g., Dashain in Ashwin, Tihar in Kartik), checking any year's Nepali calendar tells you the exact dates these festivals will fall on that year.