Festivals in Nepal | Dashain, Tihar, Holi, Bisket Jatra

Nepal is not only popular for trekking and mountains, but it is also home to multiple cultures, multiple traditions, beliefs, and 15 major festivals in Nepal that you must experience. The country is filled with 125 different castes, and 123 different languages are spoken. They have their own tradition and festival, making Nepal the most unique country in Asia, and we will talk about their tradition and culture.

The festivals in Nepal fill the streets with colors, music, and decoration. People wear their traditional dress and celebrate in their own unique way. The people from different countries enjoy the unique culture, and more than 50 festivals in Nepal are recognized all over the world. The 15 major festivals in Nepal you must experience if you are planning to visit for vacation.

If you love to explore, learn, and take part in different cultures, Nepal is the perfect destination for you. In this blog, we will talk about 15 major festivals in Nepal you must experience, like Dashain, Tihar, Holi, Teej, and many more. Many important festivals in Nepal are celebrated in the month of October, the perfect time to visit Nepal to experience its culture and tradition.

15 Major Festivals in Nepal You Must Experience

Dashain

The most important and longest festival that is celebrated all over Nepal. The festival falls in the month of October and lasts for 15 days. The festival is very important for the Hindu religion, but it is celebrated by all the religious people, and the streets are filled with colors and music.

The festival tells you the story of Goddess Durga’s victory over the evil demon Mahishasura. The festival helps people to believe that good always wins over evil energy, which motivates them to do good things for society. The first 9 days of the festival are called Navaratri, and they worship the goddess Durga as an act of appreciation.

On the 10th day, also known as Vijaya Dashami, the family gathers together, and younger members receive blessings with Tika and Jamara. The tika is made from a mixture of rice, yogurt, and red powder, which is applied to the forehead as a blessing. The Jamara are barley seedlings that are kept inside the dark room away from sunlight and used as a blessing on the tenth day.

Dashain is one of those festivals that bring family and relatives closer. All the government, private jobs, and schools are closed for two weeks. The streets are filled with unique dress, food, flowers, and other cultural items. The temples are crowded as people offer goats and buffalo as a sacrifice to God.

Tihar

The festival of lights and music is celebrated all over Nepal by people of every religion and caste. Tihar is also one of the most important festivals of Hindu culture, which is also known as Diwali and Deepavali. The festival is celebrated after two weeks of Dashain and lasts for around five days. People worship crows, dogs, cows, and oxen on different days of festivals and provide them with offerings.

On the first day of Tihar, people offer food and water to crows, also known as Kaag Tihar, because the Hindu people believe they are messengers from Yama. On the second day of Kukur Tihar, they worship the dog, offering the tika and mala made of marigolds. On the third day, also known as Gai Tihar, they worship the cow, and every house in the country is decorated with lights, candles, and oil lamps.

The fourth day, Goru Tihar, is celebrated by worshiping oxen, an important animal for farmers in Nepal. Now the last and final day of Tihar is known as Bhai Tika, the most religious festival of Nepal, where sisters perform rituals for brothers, like putting the seven different-colored tikas on their foreheads, and in return they offer gifts with the promise to protect them for life.

Holi

The festival fills the street with different colors like red, green, yellow, blue, and many other shades of color. Holi is the festival that is celebrated around winter with no social boundaries, and people splash watercolors and cover their faces with different shades of colors. These colors bring happiness and tell the story of the victory of good over evil.

Holi is not only popular in Nepal, but it is also celebrated all over the different places of India. In Kathmandu, places like Bhaktapur, Basantapur, and Lalitpur, more than thousands of people of different religions and castes gather, making streets covered in different shades of colors and music.

Holi is an important festival for the Hindu religion, celebrated for surviving the demonic Holika. The evening before Holi, the neighbors gather around bonfires in different places in the country known as “Holika Dahan.” People circle the fire to pray and burn the negative energy from their lives and enjoy the sweet drink, like Thandai.

Indra Jatra and Kumari Jatra 

Indra Jatra is the most unique festival for the Newar, Hindu, and Buddhist religions, celebrated for eight days in the capital city of Nepal, Kathmandu. He is also known as the Hindu king of heaven and the lord of rain. People believe that Lord Indra visited Kathmandu Valley in human form to pick flowers for his mother.

The people will build a large ceremonial pole known as the Yasingh in the Durbar Square of Kathmandu. More than a hundred men carry the tree trunk and raise it while playing drums, and the crowd cheers. The Yasingh will stand tall till the festival days, and later, at the end of the festival, it is taken down again while following rituals.

In the middle of Indra Jatra, an important festival of the Newar community, Kumari Jatra is celebrated for 3 days continuously. Kumari is believed to be an incarnation of the living goddess of Nepal, Taleju. The Kumari is chosen through the rituals, where a preadolescent girl from the Newari community is offered to God.

In the Indra Jatra, the little girl is carried and paraded through the streets of Kathmandu. People from all over the country join this festival just to receive blessings from the living goddess for good luck in their lives. The people wear masks and perform dances in the streets of Kathmandu, known as Lakhe.

Buddha Jayanti 

The most important festival for the Buddhist religion is celebrated all over the different places of Nepal. Buddha Jayanti is to celebrate the birth, enlightenment, and death of Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of the Buddhist religion. Nepal is the origin of the Buddhist religion, and later it was spread all over different countries of Asia.

Siddhartha Gautama was born in Lumbini around 563 BCE. On Buddha Jayanti, religious places like the Maya Devi Temple located in Lumbini are filled with thousands of devotees, monks, and travelers. They bring candles to pray, and the monasteries are filled with different colored flags engraved with mantras.

Kathmandu is also the center of attraction for Buddha Jayanti. The world’s largest stupa, Boudhanath, is located in Kathmandu, and many people gather around the stupa to pray for blessings and enjoy the festival. The place is decorated with hundreds of butter lamps, candles, and colorful prayer flags with mantras engraved on them.

Teej

The most important festival in Nepal for all females lasts for three days. It is a religious festival of Hindu culture, but it is celebrated by women of all religions. They wear traditional dress called “sari” and fast in honor of the goddesses Parvati and Lord Shiva. Married women fast for their husband’s long life, and women for a good husband in the future.

The females will eat good food, wear colorful saris, and dance, also known as dar khana, the night before their fast. The next day, they will fast for their husband without even drinking a single drop of water for their entire day. They will visit the temple dedicated to Lord Shiva to offer and pray for blessings.

Pashupatinath is the most famous temple dedicated to Lord Shiva, located in Kathmandu, the capital city of Nepal. The temple will be crowded with women wearing jewelry with their beautiful red and green saris to worship Lord Shiva. The nights of Teej fill the streets and houses with the sounds of music, madal, and drums, with females dancing and singing to those beats.

Losar

The Tibetan New Year, celebrated by Buddhist people of Nepal, is known as Losar. The Sherpa, Tamang, Gurung, and other people of the Tibetan community of Nepal celebrate the start of February, which marks the start of the Tibetan lunar calendar. The streets will be filled with cultural food and the traditional dress of this community.

They will start the preparation of Losar many weeks before the festival. They will clean the house from top to bottom and get rid of all the dust and bad fortune from last year. The families will gather for “Gutuk,” a thick soup made with barley, with hidden objects like stone, coal, or chili that will predict your personality for your new year.

The monks at Boudhanath and Swayambhunath monasteries perform a sacred masked performance of defeating demons known as Cham dances. The loud noise of horns, cymbals, and drums will make a thundering sound through the cold air and welcome the new year for the Buddhist and Tibetan community.

Janai Purnima 

Janai Purnima is a religious festival for male Hindu people, mostly among the Brahmin and Chhetri castes. They wear a thread across their chest for the entire year, known as “janai,” as a symbol of spiritual power. On this day, they will replace the old janai with a new one with the help of a priest chanting matra while wearing it.

The same day, people of the Hindu culture celebrate Raksha Bandhan. The sisters tied a thread and chanted mantras around the wrists of their brother, expressing their love for him. On the other hand, Brother offers a gift with the promise of protecting her from any danger for life. Many people visit Gosainkunda Lake, located 4,380 meters above sea level in the Langtang region, on this particular day.

The Newari community celebrates Kwati Purnima, where people will eat a dish made of 9 different types of beans. They believe it helps to build a good immune system to fight against rainy season illnesses. The 3 different festivals are celebrated on the same day, and the streets and temples are filled with people promoting their religion and traditions.

Gai Jatra 

Gai Jatra, also known as the cow festival, is a unique cultural practice of the Newari community. This is one of the important festivals for Newari families, who have lost a loved one in the previous year, and take part in the ceremony. They lead a cow or a young boy dressed as a cow through the old streets of Kathmandu as a belief that it will help to find thef way to heaven for the dead.

Gai Jatra is a joyful festival that is filled with laughter and satire. In the 17th century, King Malla’s wife was in constant pain from the death of their young son. Then the Malla king hired people wearing different costumes and comedians, making her laugh, and lifting some of her grief for a moment.

Krishna Janmashtami 

Krishna Janmashtami is the birthday of Lord Krishna, celebrated by millions of Hindus all over Nepal and India. Lord Krishna is considered one of the creations of Lord Vishnu, the most worshipped god in the Hindu religion. The devotees will visit temples of Lord Krishna to worship for good health and life.

The Krishna Mandir, located in Patan Durbar Square, is crowded with people from different countries for worship. The devotees will fast and gather at the temple for the evening program, the priest reading the Bhagavad Gita and the Bhagavata Purana. They will sing and dance till midnight, offering milk bath to the statue of baby Lord Krishna, and then dress it in fine clothing.

Maha Shivaratri 

Maha Shivaratri tells the story of the great night of Lord Shiva when he performed his dance known as Shiva Tandav. The dance shows the peak power of Lord Shiva’s creation and destruction. The devotees will spend the night in the temple without sleep, fasting, and continuous prayer for the blessing of Lord Shiva.

People from India and Nepal visit the Pashupatinath temple located in Kathmandu for this particular festival. The main attraction of Maha Shivaratri is also known as the biggest Shiva temple in the world, and is also known as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It attracts thousands of devotees on this particular day

The temple is decorated with oil lamps, and the priest does arati in the evening and morning. The temple is surrounded by naked Hindu holy men, covered in ashes, known as Sadhus. The devotees will spend the night on the banks of the Bagmati River worshiping Lord Shiva.

Bisket Jatra 

Bisket Jatra, the New Year festival of the Newari people. It is known as the most enjoyable festival in Nepal, filling the streets of Kathmandu with lights and crowds. The event will last for nine days around the time of the Nepali New Year, which is celebrated in the middle of April. People will wear traditional dress, and you can enjoy Newari traditional food at the festival.

The two large wooden wheeled chariots carrying the god are pulled through the narrow streets of Bhaktapur. The wooden poles are at least 25 meters long in the middle of the main ceremonial square. Different events, similar to tug of war, involve pulling a large rope connected to the pole for good fortune in the coming year.

Rato Machindranath Jatra 

The longest festival in Nepal is held in Patan, which can last for four months. Rato Machindranath is a deity who is represented and worshipped by the Hindus and Buddhist religions in the Kathmandu Valley as Gorakhnath or Avalokiteshvara. The tall bamboo tower decorated with cloth and metal ornaments was constructed weeks ago and then pulled through the streets of Patan.

The journey starts from Pulchok and reaches Jawalakhel, taking almost a week, with all rituals every day. On the final day of Bhoto Jatra, a jeweled vest known as a “bhoto” is shown in public. The people believe this vest belongs to a serpent king. This is the Newar legend which involves a serpent, a farmer, and a miraculous jewel.

Chhath Puja 

Chhath Puja is a festival celebrated for four days dedicated to Surya, the Sun God, and Chhathi Maiya on the sixth day of the festival. It is the most important festival in the Madhesh region of Nepal. The different communities of Maithil, Bhojpuri, and Awadhi celebrate this festival while protecting their traditions and cultures.

The women will keep a 36-hour waterless fast while standing in the river at both sunset and sunrise. You will notice thousands of women wearing different colors of sari offering prayers to the sun. This festival does not require any priest, because women will hold a bamboo basket filled with offerings above their heads as the sun sets.

Maghe Sankranti 

Maghe Sankranti is celebrated on the first day of the Magh month. This festival is also known as the new year for the Chaudhary community. The people will bathe early in the morning in the religious river, eat specific food, and follow rules and tradition to generate warmth and strength.

The streets of Kathmandu and different parts of Nepal are filled with traditional foods like til laddu, chaku, ghee, sweet potato, tarul, and many other sweets. Thousands of people will gather around the holy rivers to take a dip with the belief that it will wash away all the negative energy.

What are the 20 festivals in Nepal?

Nepal is a country filled with people of different religions that are rich in culture and traditions. More than 50 festivals are celebrated in Nepal every year, and each festival holds its own stories, traditions, culture, and beliefs. The list of the 20 festival names in Nepal is:

1. Dashain
2. Tihar
3. Holi
4. Indra Jatra
5. Buddha Jayanti
6. Maha Shivaratri
7. Teej
8. Losar
9. Janai Purnima
10. Gai Jatra
11. Krishna Janmashtami
12. Bisket Jatra
13. Rato Machinranath
14. Chhath Puja
15. Maghe Sankranti
16. Ghatasthapana
17. Saraswati Puja
18. Ram Navami
19. Nag Panchami
20. Yomari Punhi

Festivals Celebrated in Nepal in October 

October is the most popular month to explore and enjoy the important festival celebrated in Nepal. The warm temperature with the clear weather and sky creates the perfect environment to start your journey. The festival celebrated in October brings the family together, making it the most important month of the year for Nepali citizens.

In the early days of October, you will notice streets filled with clothes, flowers, and different ritual items. people traveling to their hometown in buses, planes, or private vehicles. They are all preparing for the most important festival of Nepali culture, Vijaya Dashami. A festival to celebrate with family, relatives, and friends.

In the same month, another festival of music and lights, Tihar, is celebrated. Every part of the streets and houses all over the country is decorated with lights, Diya, and candles. The people decorate their house with different arts and colors, calling it rangoli. The group of people will visit homes to spread happiness through music and dance, known as Deusi and Bhailo.

What are the main festivals in Nepal?

Dashain and Tihar are known as the most important festivals of Nepal, celebrated by all religions and castes people. The elders will put tika and jamara on the forehead of the young with a blessing to keep them healthy and successful. The entire school, private, and government offices are closed, creating the perfect opportunity to spend time with family, kids, and friends. Dashain lasts for fifteen days, and after that, people will celebrate Tihar, also known as the festival of lights.

There are many other important festivals for different communities and religious people. The Buddha Jayanti holds very important cultural beliefs for the Buddhist religious community. Indra Jatra, Bisket Jatra, and Rato Machindranath are very important festivals for the Newari people of Kathmandu Valley. Teej is a festival specially made for women, where they gather wearing beautiful Saris to celebrate dancing, singing, and eating.