Dashain and Tihar for travellers

For most Nepalis, autumn means going home. Dashain, the longest and most important Hindu festival in Nepal, starts on the first day of the bright half of the lunar month of Ashwin and runs for fifteen days to the full moon. Tihar, the festival of lights, comes about three weeks later in Kartik. Between them, the country slows down, cities empty, villages fill up and almost every family cooks more than it normally would in a month.

Both festivals follow the lunar calendar, so their dates move. Dashain can begin anywhere from late September to mid-October, and Tihar from late October to mid-November. In 2026, the year 2083 in the Nepali calendar, Dashain falls in October and Tihar in the first half of November. The exact days are set in each year's printed calendar and announced as public holidays by the government, so check current status before you travel.

For a traveller, this is both the best and the most awkward time to be in Nepal. Skies are clear after the monsoon, the mountains are out and the trails are at their best. At the same time, transport is stretched, offices close and the people you rely on, from drivers to guides, want to be with their families on the main days.

Dashain celebrates the victory of the goddess Durga over the buffalo demon Mahishasura, and with it the victory of good over evil. On the first day, Ghatasthapana, families fill a clay pot with water and sow barley seeds in sand or soil in a dark corner of the house. The yellow shoots that grow from them, called jamara, are given with tika on the tenth day.

The first six days are quiet at home, though you will see kites over every rooftop in Kathmandu and bamboo swings, called ping, built at the edge of villages. The festival gathers speed on the seventh day. The table shows the main days and what they mean on the ground.

Government offices, banks and schools close for several days in a row around Fulpati and Vijaya Dashami, and schools often close for longer. Permit offices are closed on these days, so we arrange trekking permits before Fulpati. ATMs work but can run low on cash in smaller towns, so carry enough rupees for a week.

In Kathmandu and Pokhara, hotels and most tourist restaurants in Thamel and Lakeside stay open, though some family-run places close for two or three days around tika. Local shops, eateries and markets are the most likely to shut. The roads are the bigger issue. In the days before Fulpati, long-distance buses leaving Kathmandu are booked solid as people head home, and in the days after Dashami the same buses are full coming back. Domestic flights on popular routes fill early too.

In the mountains, autumn is peak season and trekking lodges stay open. Guides and porters, however, want to receive tika from their elders. A trek that starts two or three days after Dashami, or that has the team home in time for it, makes everyone happier. We plan our autumn departures this way.

• Book long-distance transport and domestic flights at least three to four weeks ahead.
• Arrange any permits and money changing before Fulpati.
• Expect quiet streets and closed local shops on Vijaya Dashami.
• Keep one flexible day in your plan for the return rush after tika.

Dashain is a festival of meat for families who eat it. Goats are bought in the weeks before, and khasi ko masu, goat curry, is the dish of the season, cooked with ginger, garlic, cumin and plenty of chilli. In Newar homes, a feast plate often starts with samay baji: beaten rice, roasted soybeans, spiced buffalo meat, ginger and garlic, black-eyed beans and a small cup of rice spirit. Many Brahmin families keep vegetarian traditions, and the festival is just as much about sweets, fruit and yoghurt.

As a guest, you may be invited to a family tika. If you are, it is a real honour. Bow your head slightly as the elder puts the red tika of rice, yoghurt and vermilion on your forehead and the jamara behind your ear, and accept the small money gift, dakshina, with your right hand. Food follows, and refusing a second serving takes more than one polite attempt.

Tihar honours the animals that live alongside people and the goddess Laxmi, who brings wealth. On Kag Tihar, families leave food out for crows. On Kukur Tihar, dogs, including street dogs, receive garlands of marigold and a red tika. On the third day cows are worshipped in the morning, and in the evening of Laxmi Puja houses are cleaned, a path of red earth is painted from the door to the prayer room, and oil lamps and electric lights go up on every window and roof.

The fourth day has three names. Many families worship oxen and perform Govardhan Puja. Newar families perform Mha Puja, the worship of the self, and celebrate the new year of Nepal Sambat with rallies in Kathmandu. The fifth day, Bhai Tika, is for brothers and sisters: sisters give their brothers a tika of seven colours and a garland of makhamali flowers, and pray for their long life.

In the evenings, groups go from house to house singing deusi and bhailo, and receive money, fruit and sel roti in return. Sel roti, a ring of sweetened rice-flour batter fried in oil or ghee, is the taste of Tihar. Watch for it in every kitchen from Laxmi Puja onward. In the Terai, Chhath follows six days after Laxmi Puja, with offerings to the setting and rising sun at rivers and ponds.

We do not tell anyone to avoid Dashain and Tihar. Lamps on the old houses of Bhaktapur during Laxmi Puja, kites over Patan in the Dashain sun and the Fulpati procession at Hanuman Dhoka are some of the best things a visitor can see in Nepal. What we do is arrange the days so the festival works for you rather than against you.

For a trek, we start either well before Fulpati or two to three days after Dashami, and we avoid long bus journeys on the travel days on either side. For a city trip, we place the Kathmandu Valley days on the festival days, when the streets are full of families in new clothes, and put the driving days in between. Under the 2023 rule, foreign trekkers in national parks and conservation areas need a licensed guide, and that is one more reason to fix the team early in this season. Check current status before you travel.