Festivals Calendar 2006

The religious festivals follow the lunar calendar, while national festivals have fixed date. Some of the major and interesting festivals calendar is presented below

 
Short brief of major festivals

Magh Sakranti
This festival falls during the Nepalese month of Magh celebrating the end of the coldest winter months with ritual bathing, despite the cold.

Basanta Panchami (Saraswati Puja)
This spring festival has a special importance for students and scholars. This festival is celebrated by honoring Saraswati as she is the Goddess of Learning.

Mahashivaratri (Shiva's Day)
Shiva's birthday falls on the new moon day of the month of Falgun. Festivities take place at all Shiva temple but most particularly at the great Pashupatinath temple, devotees flock there not only from all over Nepal but also from all over India.

Phagu Purnima / Holi
This festival takes place on the full moon day in the month of Falgun and is known as festival of colours. This is welcoming the spring with spraying water and colour powder to everyone and everything.

Bisket Jatra
The Nepalese new year starts in mid-April, at the beginning of the month of Baisakh, and the bisket festival in Bhaktapur is the most spectacular welcome for the new year and one of the most exciting annual events in the valley.

Buddha Jayanti (Baishak Purnima)
This day is dedicated to Lord Buddha's birthday, enlightment and Nirvana. Many colourful ceremonies are held nation wide especially in Lumbini birthplace of Lord Buddha, swayambhunath and Boudhanath.

Gai Jatra
The Gai Jatra takes place on the day after the Saaun full moon and it is a big festival similar to carnival, which lasts almost 8 days. This festival is dedicated to those who died during the preceding year. Its highlights are dancing, singing and making jokes. Those people whose family has died during the year send out persons dressed up as cow and different comic figures to parade the first day of the festival.

Krishna Jayanti (Krishna Asthami)
The seventh day after the full moon in the month of Bhadra is celebrated as Krishna's birthday, sometimes known as Krishnasthanmi.

Teej
Teej is the festival women, which lasts for three days, from the second to the fifth day following the new moon in the month of Bhadra. It is centered on Pashupatinath and women celebrate the festival in honour of their husbands and in hope of a long and happy married life.

Indra Jatra
This festival is a colourful and exciting festival which manages to combine homage to Indra with an important annual appearance by Kumari (the living goddess), respects to Bhairab and commemoration of the conquest of the valley by Prithivi Narayan Shah. The festival also marks the end of the monsoon and the start of the fine months, which follow.

Dashin
The pleasant post-monsoon period when the sky is clearest, the air is cleanest and the rice is ready for harvesting is also the time for Nepal's biggest annual festival. Dasain lasts for 15 days, finishing on the full-moon day of late September or early October, and there are a number of important days right through the festival. Dashain is also known as Durga Puja since the festival celebrates the victory of the goddess Durga over the forces of evil in the guise of the buffalo demon Mahisaura. Since Durga is a bloodthirsty goddess, the festival is marked by wholesale bloodletting and features the biggest animal sacrifice of the year.

Tihar
It's a colourful Festival of Lights. Tihar is the second biggest festival in Nepal. This festival is celebrated for 05 days and falls during late October or early November.