Dashain: Nepal's Biggest Festival

Dashain (दशैं) — also called Bada Dashain or Vijaya Dashami — is the longest and most important festival in Nepal: a 15-day Hindu celebration that brings the whole country to a near standstill every autumn. Offices close, millions travel home to their family villages, kites fill the skies, and every household prepares for the moment elders press a red tika onto younger foreheads. If your trip overlaps with it, Dashain will shape everything from bus availability to the mood on the streets — and reward you with sights you will see at no other time of year.

What is Dashain?

Dashain celebrates the goddess Durga's victory over the buffalo demon Mahishasura — the triumph of good over evil. Through the first nine nights (Navaratri), devotees worship Durga in her nine forms; on the tenth day, Vijaya Dashami ("the victorious tenth"), families gather for blessings. Many Nepalis also link the day to Rama's defeat of the demon king Ravana in the Ramayana — the same story behind Dussehra in India.

Beyond the mythology, Dashain is Nepal's great annual homecoming. People working in Kathmandu, India, the Gulf or Malaysia return to their home villages, extended families reunite, houses are cleaned and repainted, debts are settled and new clothes are bought for everyone. Think of Christmas, Thanksgiving and the summer holidays rolled into a single fortnight and you are close to how it feels.

When is Dashain?

Dashain falls in the lunar month of Ashwin, which lands in late September or October, closing on the full moon. Because it follows the lunar calendar, the exact Gregorian dates shift each year — check the festival calendar of Nepal for the current year's dates. Handily for travellers, the festival coincides with the start of the clear post-monsoon peak season — see Nepal in October for what the weather is doing.

The key days of Dashain

Fifteen days is a long arc, but a handful of days carry most of the ritual weight:

• Ghatasthapana (day 1). The festival opens as families sow barley and maize seeds in sand in the household shrine room. Watered daily and kept from the light, the seeds grow into jamara, the sacred yellow shoots handed out on day ten.
• Fulpati (day 7). Sacred flowers, sugarcane and banana stalks — the phulpati — are carried into homes. In Kathmandu, an official phulpati procession, historically brought all the way from the old Shah palace in Gorkha, is welcomed with parades.
• Maha Asthami (day 8). Worship of Durga's fiercest form, Kali. The night that follows, Kal Ratri, is the main night of animal sacrifice at temples and army posts.
• Maha Navami (day 9). The climax of Durga worship. Workshops, tools and vehicles are blessed for the year ahead, and Kathmandu's Taleju temple opens to the public for its only day of the year.
• Vijaya Dashami (day 10). The heart of the festival — tika day, covered below. Family visits continue through the closing days.
• Kojagrat Purnima (day 15). The final full moon, when Lakshmi, goddess of wealth, is said to roam the earth asking "who is awake?" — many families oblige by staying up late playing cards.

Tika and jamara

On Vijaya Dashami, elders place a tika — a soft paste of rice, yoghurt and red vermilion — on the foreheads of younger relatives, tuck sprigs of yellow jamara behind their ears or into their hair, and speak blessings for health, prosperity and long life, usually with dakshina (a small gift of money) pressed into the hand. Receiving tika from every senior relative can take days, so from the tenth day onwards a steady traffic of families in their best clothes criss-crosses every town. It is the single most important ritual of the Nepali year, and Nepalis abroad mark it over video calls rather than miss it.

How families celebrate

Between the rituals, Dashain is Nepal at its most festive. Children fly kites from every rooftop — the cry of changa chait! goes up when someone cuts a rival's line, and tradition holds that the kites signal the rain god Indra that the monsoon is over. Communities lash together towering bamboo swings called ping, and it is said everyone should leave the ground on one at least once during the festival. Families feast on goat curry and sel roti, exchange visits, and play marathon card games late into the night — the one season when a little gambling is cheerfully tolerated.

The animal sacrifice tradition

Animal sacrifice remains part of Dashain for many households and temples. Goats, buffalo, ducks and chickens are offered to Durga, mainly on Kal Ratri (the night of Maha Asthami) and Maha Navami, at shrines such as Dakshinkali and in army ceremonies; the meat is then taken home and eaten as prasad — blessed food — in the family feast. A growing number of families substitute a coconut, an egg or a pumpkin, and animal-welfare campaigns have made the practice a live debate within Nepal. Sacrifices take place in specific temple courtyards rather than on ordinary streets, so travellers who prefer not to see them can avoid those sites easily — and should always ask before photographing any ritual.

What Dashain means for travellers

Dashain cuts both ways for visitors:

• Transport is the crunch. In the days before Vijaya Dashami, buses and domestic flights sell out as the whole country travels home. Book bus tickets and flights well ahead, or avoid moving on the peak travel days.
• Things close. Banks, government offices and many shops shut around days eight to twelve — the longest stretch on Nepal's public holiday calendar. Carry enough cash.
• Kathmandu goes quiet. The capital empties of commuters, traffic thins and the air clears — festival-week Kathmandu can be the most pleasant you will ever see it. Tourist hubs like Thamel stay largely open.
• The sights are unrepeatable. Bamboo swings, kite battles, families walking to tika in their finest, and the one-day opening of Taleju temple happen only now.

Trekking itself is barely affected — trails and teahouses stay open through the holidays — but sort permits, guides and transport before the main closure days.

Tips for visiting during Dashain

• Book early. Buses, domestic flights and rooms sell out days ahead.
• Carry cash, as banks close and ATMs can sit unstocked for several days.
• Dress modestly at temples and accept tika or prasad with your right hand — see our Nepal culture and etiquette guide.
• Ask before photographing rituals, and steer clear of sacrifice sites if you would rather not see them.
• Say yes to invitations. Visitors are often welcomed into tika gatherings — a plate of festival food usually follows.

Dashain leads straight into Tihar, the festival of lights, about two weeks later, while the women's festival of Teej and Kathmandu's Indra Jatra come just before it. For the whole year at a glance, browse the festival calendar of Nepal.