Festival of Nepal

Nepal is home to many ethnic groups, making it a multicultural, multilingual country with its own colors and traditions. The diverse cultures and traditions of Nepal in each ethnic group are different from each other. They have their own way of celebrating things and their own festivals. For instance, Newar has multiple Jatras, and Tamangs, Sherpas, and Gurungs celebrate Lhosar. With varieties in culture and tradition, festivals in Nepal are fun and lively for the specific community that celebrates them. Festivals always bring a chance to gather and forget the burden of anything for the respective time, bringing happiness to the households of Nepal. Even though there are many festivals each community celebrates on its own, there are a few that are celebrated by the whole community of Nepal, i.e., Dashain and Tihar.

Major Festivals and Some Regional festivals of Nepal
The culturally blessed country of Nepal is home to diverse ethnic groups, each with its own way of life, tradition, and celebration. Nepal’s diversity is not limited to culture and tradition alone; each ethnic community has its own specific language, food, costumes, and customs. With all their linguistics and heritages, this multilingual country of ours celebrates multiple festivals together with all other ethnic communities.

Even with the diverse ethnic community, the love and harmony in each other’s eyes can be seen. Celebrating festivals of another community and making them participate in theirs is the humble nature of every Nepalese. With diversity come diverse cultures, traditions, and festivals; thus, it is not possible to celebrate all the festivities. Therefore, some major festivals are celebrated throughout the ethnic community of Nepal. Some of the major festivals celebrated are as follows:

Dashain and Tihar
Dashain and Tihar fall in the months of Ashwin and Kartik in the Nepali calendar, and in the English calendar, they fall in October and November. Dashain is celebrated for 15 days and Tihar for 5 days, making it the longest and most auspicious festival of all. It is mostly celebrated by the Hindu community. According to Hindu mythology, Durga fought with the demon Mahasura for nine days and got a victory in those 10 days. And as for Tihar, it celebrates the relationship between the siblings. All five days are significant for different days. Thus, it is the major festival for Nepalese.

Holi
The festival of color, Holi, is mostly celebrated by the people of the Terai and Hilly regions. This festival of color absolutely brings joy, happiness, and liveliness among the Nepalese. This festival falls in the month of Falgun in the Nepalese annual calendar. Holi is celebrated for more than 2 days in Terai and only 1 day in the hilly region. Holi is celebrated both in India and Nepal.

Mani Rimdu Festival
Mani Rimdu Festival is a regional festival but heavily celebrated in the Sherpa community of the Everest region. Though this festival is not celebrated in the other community, it is a celebration of the recreation of ancient events like the evolution of Buddhism in Tibet by Guru Rinpoche. It is celebrated with a prayer and a mask dance by the monks. The mask dance is regarded as sacred. The festival is celebrated on the 10th month of the lunar calendar, which falls from mid-October to mid-November in the English calendar. This is a 19-day-long sacred ceremony that is finished with a public festival lasting for three days. Just like the Teej festival, this is also more famous among the Sherpa community and tourists.

Gai Jatra
Gai Jatra is one of the unique festivals of the Kathmandu Valley and is celebrated to commemorate the deaths of loved ones. The festival is celebrated every year on the first day of the dark fortnight of the month of Gunla as per the Nepal Sambat calendar (English in August).
The Gai Jatra festival was started by King Pratap Mall in the 17th century to help his queen overcome the grief of their son’s death. Gai Jatra is a day for bereaved families to share their sorrow and to take comfort in the knowledge that they are not alone in their suffering and that their lost ones are safe. Therefore, the festival is marked by great joy, singing, dancing, and laughter in the Kathmandu Valley and other parts of the country.