Festivals & Events
Dashain 2026 runs 11–25 October and the tika day, Vijaya Dashami, is Wednesday 21 October. Tihar follows 7–11 November, ending with Bhai Tika on 11…
By Maya Rai · Jul 28, 2026
Ask anyone in Kathmandu when Dashain is and they answer with the tika day first, because that is the day everything else bends around — the flight home, the shuttered bank, the queue at the bus counter. In 2026 that day is Wednesday 21 October. Dashain runs…
Travel Himalaya Nepal · News
Dashain is fifteen days long, but only six of them carry a name most households mark. Here they are with the Bikram Sambat date alongside, because that is how the dates are written on a Nepali calendar and it is the column people usually come here looking…
Travel Himalaya Nepal · News
Tika on Vijaya Dashami is given while the Dashami tithi is running, and in 2026 that tithi closes at 2:26pm Nepal time on Wednesday 21 October . Sunrise in Kathmandu that morning is 6:07am. So the honest answer to the question people actually type is a window…
Travel Himalaya Nepal · News
Tihar is five days of oil lamps, marigold ropes and animals honoured one at a time — crow, dog, cow, ox — before it turns to people on the last day. In 2026 it opens on Saturday 7 November and ends with Bhai Tika on Wednesday 11 November, when sisters give…
Travel Himalaya Nepal · News
This is the part worth knowing before you argue with a relative about it. In 2026 the Chaturdashi tithi ends at 11:42am on 8 November and Amavasya takes over the same afternoon, which compresses two of Tihar's days into one. Nepali patros keep the five…
Travel Himalaya Nepal · News
More than people expect, and for longer. Government offices, banks and the permit counters close for a multi-day national holiday clustered around Phulpati to Ekadashi — call it 17 to 22 October in 2026 — and neighbourhood shops, money changers and family-run…
Travel Himalaya Nepal · News
Very little on the trail itself, and quite a lot getting to it. Most Everest and Annapurna guides and porters are Sherpa, Gurung or Magar and already live in the valleys you are walking through, so they are not fighting for a seat on a plane to get home for…
Travel Himalaya Nepal · News
The tithi is calculated at a place, so the Nepali dates do not transfer cleanly. In the United States, Britain, Australia and Canada, Nepali associations almost always hold the community tika on the nearest weekend rather than on 21 October itself, and Bhai…
Travel Himalaya Nepal · News
Dashain 2026 runs from Ghatasthapana on Sunday 11 October to Kojagrat Purnima on Sunday 25 October. The main day, Vijaya Dashami, is Wednesday 21 October 2026 — 4 Kartik 2083 in the Bikram Sambat calendar.
Travel Himalaya Nepal · News
Tika is given on 21 October while the Dashami tithi runs, from sunrise at 6:07am until the tithi closes at 2:26pm Kathmandu time. The single auspicious saita is announced separately by the Nepal Panchanga Nirnayak Samiti and had not been published when this…
Travel Himalaya Nepal · News
Tihar 2026 runs Saturday 7 November to Wednesday 11 November. Bhai Tika is Wednesday 11 November, with the Dwitiya tithi closing at 4:08pm Kathmandu time.
Travel Himalaya Nepal · News
Not everything, but more than you would expect. Government offices, banks and permit desks close for a multi-day holiday around 17—22 October 2026, and many family-run shops and restaurants shut for several days either side. Hotels, teahouses and the trekking…
Travel Himalaya Nepal · News
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