Events and festivals

Festivals of Nepal in January and February

Festivals in February March

Swasthani Puja
Goddess Swasthani’s three
eyes burn like the sun. She is the
ultimate gift grantor; if insulted,
she can make life miserable. By
worshipping Swasthani, Parbati
attained Lord Shiva as her husband.
In the worship rites of Goddess
Swasthani, outlined by Parbati, the
Swasthani scripture is read every
evening for a month. Worshipping
Swasthani will bring together parted
relations, remove curses, and result
in limitless gifts.


Sweta Machhendranath Snan
Sweta (white) Machhen dranath
enjoys a week?long festival in which
he is bathed, oiled, perfumed, and
painted. The Goddess Kumari visits
him at his elaborate temple near
Asan Tole. If he is pleased by the
music, offerings, and attentions of
his devotees, the people of the
Valley can look forward to
satisfactory rainfall in the
planting season.

Maha Shivaratri
Lord Shiva is one of Nepal’s
most popular gods. During Maha
Shivaratri, his “Great Night”,
followers throughout the Indian
sub-continent crowd the Pashupati
temple to worship him. On this
occasion ?there is no space even for
a sesame seed”. Colorful sadhus, the
wandering sages who emulate Shiva,
rub ashes over their bodies, give
lectures to disciples, meditate, or
practice yoga. Devotees pray to
Shiva’s image inside the temple at
midnight and may queue for up to six
hours to look at the image. Bonfires
are lit, neighbours and friends
share food, and devotees enjoy two
days and a night of music, song, and
dance throughout the Pashupati
complex and in the streets.

 

Losar
Sherpas and Tibetans welcome
their New Year with feasts, family
visits and dancing. Families don
their finest clothes and jewellery
and exchange gifts. Buddhist monks
offer prayers for good health and
prosperity, and perform dances at
the monasteries. Colorful prayer
flags decorate streets and rooftops;
the colors seem especially brilliant
at the Bouddha and Swayambhu stupas.
Crowds of celebrants at Bouddha
bring in the New Year by throwing
tsampa (roasted barley flour) into
the air.

 

Festivals of Nepal in April, May

Festivals of Nepal in July, August

Biska Jatra
During this important
festival, the old kingdom of
Bhaktapur and its neighbouring areas
replay a brama passed on over the
centuries. Images of wrathful and
somewhat demonic deities are placed
on tottering chariots. They are
offered blood sacrifices, flowers,
and coins. Men brimming with
youthful vigor and rice beer drag
the chariots across brick?paved
streets of the town, and wherever
these raths stop, lamps are lit and
devotees overflow into the
surrounding alleys. Other gods and
goddesses, too, are put on
palanquins and carried around so
that they may see the sights. At
Bode village, there is a
tongue-boring ceremony in which the
dedicated may reserve a place in
heaven.

 

New Year’s Day
The Nepalese follow their own
calendar system known as the Bikram
Era or Bikram Sambat. Nawabarsha is
celebrated on the first day of the
first month of the new year and is
observed as an official holiday. In
Bhaktapur, fifteen kilometers from
Kathmandu, the New Year celebrations
take on added importance at Bisket
Jatra. Images of the god Bhairav and
his female counterpart Bhadrakali
are enshrined in two large chariots
and pulled through crowds of
cheering on lookers. When the
chariot reaches a sloping open
square, there is a tug-of-war
between the inhabitants of the upper
and lower parts of the town. Winners
are considered to be blessed with
good fortune for the coming year.
The festival concludes with several
days of dancing and worship. Thimi,
another ancient town of the Valley,
also celebrates the New Year with
special festivities.

Gunla
The monsoon has arrived, and
the fields have been planted. It is
time for Kathmandu Valley Buddhists
to observe Gunla. The month long
festivities celebrate a retreat
initiated twenty five centuries ago
by the Buddha. It is a time for
prayer, fasting, meditation and
religious music. Worshippers climb
past jungles, stone animals, great
statues of the Buddha, and begging
monkeys to Swayambhu’s hilltop where
daily prayers begin before dawn.
*Oil lamps, prayer flags, religious
statues, and scroll paintings adorn
the monasteries as temple bells
chime and powerful scents fill the
air. Important Buddhist statues,,
and monasteries are on display at
the monasteries, and the teachings
of Lord Buddha are remembered as the
rains nurture the rice, Nepal’s most
important crop.

Janai Purnima
On Janai Purnima. a full moon
day, high.caste Hindus chant the
powerful Gayatri mantra and change
their Sacred Thread (janai), while a
raksya bandhan, a red or yellow
protection cord, is tied around the
wrists of other Hindus and
Buddhists. Pilgrims journey to the
mountains north of Kathmandu. Here
they emulate Lord Shiva by bathing
in the sacred lake of Gosaikund.
Those unable to make the trek
celebrate at Shiva’s Kumbheswar
Mahadev temple. Here, a pool with an
image of Shiva at its center is
filled with water A to have.

Festivals of Nepal in September, October,

Festivals of Nepal in October, November

Indra Jatra
Indra, King of Heaven and
controller of the rains, has once
again blessed the Valley. As the end
of the monsoon nears, farmers look
forward to a rich harvest: everyone
is grateful to the deva for his
help. For eight days, Kathmandu’s
Durbar Square is the focus of a
great celebration fit to ?flatter
the King of Heaven.” Indra’s dhwaj,
or flag, is erected on the first
day. It is said that many centuries
ago, Indra’s mother needed specially
scented flowers but could not find
them in heaven’s gardens. Indra
discovered parijat flowers in the
Kathmandu Valley and tried to steal
them for his mother. He was caught
and imprisoned by the Valley people.
When Indra’s mother came searching
for him the people were appalled by
what they had done. They released
Indra and dedicated one of the most
colorful festivals of Nepal to him
to appease his anger. Masks and
statues representing Vishnu, Bhairab,
and Shiva are shown to the public,
and the Goddess Kumari witnesses the
special occasion from her chariot.
Indra is thanked for the rains and
assured once again that he is
respected in the Kathmandu Valley.

Dasain
Dasain is the longest and
most favorite festival of Nepal.
Everyone stays home with their
families, offices close and Radio
Nepal plays Dasain music. The skies
of Kathmandu are filled with kites
and the marketplaces are filled with
farmers bringing their buffaloes,
goats and chickens to sell. The
animals are to be sacrificed on the
night of Kal Ratri to the goddess
Durga to celebrate her victory over
evil. On the day of Dashami,
everyone puts on new clothes and
goes to honor their family elders,
where they receive large red tikas
of vermilion paste on their
foreheads. In the following days of
Dasain, families and friends unite,
feasts are consumed, blessings are
imparted and gifts are exchanged.
Nepal’s most beloved festival ends
with the full moon.

Mani Rimdu
Mani Rimdu is a Sherpa
festival celebrated during the fall
at Tengboche Monstery in the Everest
region. For five days, Lamas and
Sherpas gather for “the good of the
world.” There are plays, masked
dances, prayers, and feastings.
Demons are quelled and the pious
rewarded. The days are colorful and
trips to the Everest region are very
rewarding indeed if they can be
organized during the days of the
festival.

Tihar

Tihar, known as the Festival
of Lights, is a time of candlelight,
tinsel decorations and festive
colored sweets. On different days,
there are offerings and small
celebrations for crows, dogs, cows
and oxen. On the night of Lakshmi
Puja, garlands are hung and lamps
are lighted to invite Lakshmi, the
goddess of wealth, into the home.
Mha Puja, the New Year’s Day
according to the Nepal Era, is the
day of the self, when people give
themselves blessings to remain
healthy and happy for the rest of
the year. 13hai Tika, the last day
of Tihar, is the day when sisters
make offerings to their brothers.
The rituals of breaking a walnut,
putting on garlands of makhamali
flowers and encircling brothers in
rings of mustard oil protects them
from Yama, lord of the Netherworld.

Fesrtivals of Nepal in November, December

 

Bala Chaturdarsi
This simple, festive day
takes place in the ancient forest
surrounding the temple of
Pashupatinath. It is one of the
oldest traditions of the Valley.
Families who have lost a loved one
in the last year keep an all?night
vigil in the forest, lighting oil
lamps and singing songs. Following a
ritual morning bath, people walk
through the forest, scattering seven
types of grain along the paths and
over the linga of Lord Shiva to give
merit to their late kinsmen and to
cleanse the sins of a mythological
man called Bala who had been
transformed into a demon.


Bibah Panchami
All the people of the Hindu
world know the story of the marriage
of the hero Ram and the princess
Sita, as told in the epic Ramayana.
King Janak, Sita’s father, proposed
a test of strength for the suitors
of his daughter: to string the great
bow of Lord Shiva. Warriors, kin?s
and chieftains came from afar, but
no man could even lift the bow. Ram
lifted the bow with ease and when he
tried to string it, the bow shat tered into pieces. Ram and Sita were
married in Janakpur, now in southern
Nepal, and their marriage is
celebrated to this day. Each year,
idols of Ram and Sita are brought
out in procession and their Hindu
wedding ceremony is re?enacted
during a week?long religious fair.
Bibah Panchami reflects the devotion
of Hindus to Ram, perhaps the most
popular among the incarnations of
Vishnu, and to Sita, the model of
the ideal Hindu woman