Nepal's festivals: which are worth planning around, and which will close the banks

Dashain — September or October, and it will affect you

The biggest Hindu festival in Nepal, running about fifteen days, and effectively a national shutdown for the busiest four or five of them. Families travel home, shops close, offices close, and the country's buses fill with people going back to their villages.

For a visitor the practical effects are real: transport is heavily booked and more expensive, some teahouses on quieter routes close because the family has gone home, and government offices — including permit offices — shut for several days.

The atmosphere is worth seeing. Homes get repainted, enormous bamboo swings go up in villages, kites fly everywhere, and elders give tika — rice, curd and vermilion pressed onto your forehead — with jamara barley shoots. If you are staying with a family you will be included, and you should let yourself be.

Practical advice: book transport well ahead, do your permits before the holiday starts, and expect a slower Nepal for a week.

Tihar — a fortnight after Dashain

Five days of lights, and the most visually beautiful festival in the country. Oil lamps and marigold garlands on every doorway, rangoli patterns on the floors, and groups going house to house singing deusi and bhailo for small change.

Each day honours something different, and this is the part visitors love: crows on the first day, dogs on the second — every dog in Nepal, including street dogs, gets a marigold garland and a tika — then cows, then oxen, and finally Bhai Tika between brothers and sisters. Less disruptive than Dashain but still a holiday period. Lakeside at Tihar is lovely and it is a good few days to be in a town rather than on a trail.

Tiji — May, and worth planning a trip around

Three days of masked dances in the square below the palace at Lo Manthang, in Upper Mustang. It tells the story of a deity defeating a demon, it has been performed for centuries, and it happens in a walled medieval town in a Tibetan desert landscape.

This is the one festival we would tell you to build an entire itinerary around. It is also the most logistically demanding: Upper Mustang needs a restricted-area permit through an agency, accommodation in Lo Manthang is limited, and the whole thing books out well ahead.

Dates follow the Tibetan calendar and move, so they are confirmed only a few months out. If you want Tiji, talk to us a year ahead and we will watch the date for you.

Mani Rimdu, Janai Purnima, Losar and Holi

Mani Rimdu at Tengboche monastery in the Khumbu, usually October or November — nineteen days of ritual with three days open to the public, including masked dances. It fits neatly into an Everest Base Camp trek if the dates line up.

Janai Purnima on the August full moon. Hindu men change the sacred thread they wear, and pilgrims walk up to sacred lakes — Gosaikunda above Langtang, and Khayer Lake above Khopra. Seeing a normally empty cirque full of pilgrims who have walked up in sandals is an extraordinary thing.

Losar in February, the Tibetan and Sherpa new year, celebrated in the high Buddhist regions and in Boudhanath in Kathmandu.

Holi in February or March — colours, water, and a great deal of enthusiasm aimed at foreigners in particular. The hill regions celebrate a day before the lowlands. Wear something you do not mind destroying, and be aware that the enthusiasm can get boisterous.

Indra Jatra and Buddha Jayanti

Indra Jatra in September, mostly a Kathmandu event, with chariot processions through the old city and the Kumari — the living goddess — pulled through the streets. The best few days of the year to be in Kathmandu Durbar Square.

Buddha Jayanti on the May full moon, marking the Buddha's birth, enlightenment and death. Lumbini, Boudhanath and Swayambhunath are the places to be. Both are worth catching if your dates happen to fall on them, and neither is worth restructuring a trip for unless you have a particular interest.

How to actually plan around this

Because the calendar is lunar, published dates for next year are approximate until they are not. Do not book non-refundable flights around a festival date you found on a blog.

Tell us if a festival matters to you and we will confirm the date as it firms up and build the itinerary around it. For Tiji specifically, that means starting a year out.

And if you are not interested in festivals at all, the only two you need to know about are Dashain and Tihar, because they will change what is open and how easily you can move around.

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