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Public Holidays and Bank Holidays for Nepal

The list of Nepal bank holidays, national holidays and public holidays for 2008, comes from the Q++ Worldwide Public Holidays Database, the professional source of international public holidays long trusted by the world's foremost diary publishers. The information on this page is provided for private, non-professional, use. Qualified professionals can license data for 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, and beyond. For details, please visit our licensing information page or

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28 Oct 2008 (The Himalayan Times-Kathmandu) Madan Krishna Shrestha, president of the Rastriya Bibhuti Sankhadhar Sakhwa Prathisthan organisation has called on the Nepalese government to recognize as a full-fledged public holiday, the the New Year day of the Nepal Sambat calendar. • 01 Oct 2008 (The Himalayan-Kathmandu) The government of Nepal has officially declared tomorrow, Wednesday, October 1, 2008, as the first occurrence of Eid al Fitr (End of Ramadan) as a public holiday in Nepal. • 23 Jul 2008 (Nepal News-Kathmandu) The Council of Ministers of Nepal decided to celebrate today's historic election of Nepal's first republican President and Vice President, by declaring tomorrow, Thursday, July 24, 2008, a one-off general public holiday. • 27 May 2008 (Nepal News) As we had surmised on May 22, the 3 days of May 28-30 have been declared a public holiday to mark the first Constituent Assembly. In addition all schools will also be closed from May 28-30, inclusively. • 23 May 2008 (Telegraph Nepal) The government of Nepal is planning to declare a 3-day public holiday on the occasion of the May 28, upcoming Constituent Assembly Convention, which is expected to formally declare Nepal a federal democratic republic, thus ending 240 years of monarchy. • 02 Apr 2008 (Nepal News) Following a cabinet meeting held at the Prime Minister's Office, earlier today, the government has announced five-day public holiday, to run from Monday-Friday, April 7-11, 2008, inclusively, on the occasion of the constituent assembly polls. • 01 Apr 2008 (Nepal News) Nepal's Home Minister, Krishna Prasad Sitaula, has announced that the government is about to announce a four-day public holiday keeping in view the election to the Constituent Assembly (CA) on April 10. • 07 Mar 2008 (The Rising Nepal + The Press Trust of India) Nepal's Cabinet announced that it was adding 18 new public holidays. Among those mentioned are: Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha, Christmas, the Birthday of Guru Nanak, Ubhauli Udhyauli, Goura, both Lhosars (Tamu and Sonam), Siruwa and Maghi. • 16 Jan 2008 (National News Agency Nepal) Two influential voices in Nepal have recently gone on record, in favor of an Edmund Hillary public holiday in Nepal. The Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation stated that he would also make effort to give one day public holiday for the late Hillary (presumably on the occasion of the January 22, State Funeral). • 12 Jan 2008 (Nepal News) The Constituent Assembly Elections have been rescheduled for Thursday, April 10, 2008. As a public holiday was planned on previous election dates, and the 13th and 14th of April are already public holidays, we think that it is quite likely that Nepal will declare a public holiday on April 10, 2008. • 28 Dec 2007 (Nepal News + The Himalayan Times) Home Minister, Krishna Sitaula, has announced that festivals of indigenous nationalities and of various religious minorities would be made into full national public holidays (currently the festivals of most ethnic and religious minorities only give these minorities the right to a day off, provided that they are civil servants). • 15 Oct 2007 (The Hindustan Times + Indo-Asian News Service) The first test of the government's promise to observe Muslim festivals as public holidays was this past week-end on the occasion of the Eid al-Fitr, scheduled in Nepal, for Sunday, October 14 (a normal working day, as the weekly day off in Nepal is Saturday). • 07 Oct 2007 (BBC World) Elections for Nepal's first constituent assembly, which were scheduled for November 22, 2007, have been postponed after ruling parties and former Maoist rebels failed to break their political deadlock. • 30 Aug 2007 (Nepal News) The government of Nepal has agreed that public holidays would be given on Muslim festivals. These new public holidays will most likely be allowances, limited to Muslim civil servants, to be off work on the day of the main Muslim festivals. • More News Updates For the full version of the summarized news items above, and older news items not displayed above, go to the Nepal public holidays news and updates page, or worldwide public holidays news and updates page, or subscribe to one of our free email newsletters.

The weekly day off in Nepal is Saturday; Sunday is a normal working day. • Nepalese Calendar: Note that dates listed in all official government documents are based on the Nepalese B.S. calendar, which is similar, but not exactly the same as, the Hindu lunar calendar. • Tihar: is the Nepalese name corresponding to the Diwali holiday of Northern India, and Deepavali holiday of Southern India. • Nepal, that has the largest number of religious festivals in the world and public holidays, still enjoys a state holiday during eclipses. • Government Holidays: These are often reserved for specific religions or regions. Nepal is now a Secular State as opposed to a Hindu Kingdom which they used to be. • Nepal is predominantly Hindu. (About 80% of its 29 million inhabitants are Hindu. About 10% are Buddhists, about 4% Muslims, and around 3% Kirat, with Christians numbering approximately 1 million. • The Government last revised the list of Nepal's public holidays in mid-March 2007 (see our news story of March 16, 2007). • They added very little that was new; they mosty made official what had generally been the norm for many years. Different religious groups or regions celebrate many of the various holidays. • Hari Taika (Teej), Rishi Panchami and Women’s Day are public holidays for women only. • The public holidays of Sahid Diwash (Martyrs' Day) and Prajatantra Diwash (Democracy Day) remain unchanged for the moment. • It may be noted that the government has already scrapped the provision of two days holiday per week that was effective in Kathmandu Valley. They now have only Saturday as a rest day now, just like the rest of the country. • Civil Servants' Day includes the offices of foreign missions of Nepal and for the staff of the court and constitutional bodies. • The Tharu community will get leave on the day of Maghi Parba. • Muslims may get leave on the occasions of: Eid al Adha (Feast of Sacrifice) and Eid al Fitr (End of Ramadan). • Kathmandu Valley, usually just referred to as Valley, celebrates various holidays that the rest of the country doesn't. These include Bhoto Jatra, Gai Jatra, Indra Jatra, and a day earlier for Holi / Falgu Purnima. • Apart from Kathmandu valley, the festival of Gai Jatra is also observed in Banepa, Dhulikhel, Trisuli, Dolakha, Khotang, Bhojpur, Chainpur, Ilam, Dharan, Biratnagar, Birgunj, Hetauda and Pokhara. • Ghatnasthapana marks the beginning of the festival of Badadashain, a great Hindu festival, observed across the country on the date of the Aswin Shukla Pratipada. • Chhat is a regional public holiday corresponding to the third day of the festival of the Mithilanchal. It is celebrated in Terai by going to the rivers and ponds, singing folk and devotional songs and offering prayers to the sun god. The first two days of the festival are called Arba Arbain (or Nahan Khan) and Kharana (meaning the reduction of sin), and are not public holidays. • National Unity Day or Prithivi Jayanti: (January 11) this public holiday which marks the birth anniversary of Late King Prithvi Narayan Shah, often credited for building the modern Nepal state in 1768, was cancelled by the Nepalese government late in 2006. • Other Sources of Information For information not covered here, see the following specialized websites: Central Bank of Nepal (Nepal central bank), ASI Hot Spots (security-related world events: terrorist threats, political strife, strikes, criminal activity, aviation incidents and health outbreaks), CIA World Factbook (maps, demographic and economic statistics), Copp Clark (financial markets' trading hours, settlement holidays and currency non-clearing days), and the IFES Election Guide (information covering upcoming elections, referenda, electoral structures and past voter participation).

Observance : Any entry in the Observance column indicates that, in Nepal, the holiday may be regional or non-official or limited to certain religious and/or linguistic groups, or begin at a time other than midnight. Note that religious holidays are included only if they are national public holidays, or if the national labour code has specific holiday allowances for employees of specific religions. For more information, see our pages on the religious calendars of the world. Aft=Afternoon, Arm=Armenian, Bah=Bahai, Bnk=Banks and most financial institutions, Bud=Buddhist, Cat=Catholic, Chr=Christian, Cop=Coptic, Eve=Evening, Gov=Government services and civil servants, Hin=Hindu, Jew=Jewish, Lin=Linguistic or ethnic groups, Mor=Morning, Mun=Municipal, Mus=Muslim, Orth=Orthodox, Othr=Miscellaneous partial observances (usually described in the Additional Information section of this page), Prt=Protestant, Reg=Regional, Rel=Other Religion, Sch=Schools and universities, Sik=Sikh.

Religious Holidays : Public holidays in Nepal that are based on certain religious calendars may be subject to local variations due to differing interpretations between different religious authorities, or to seemingly arbitrary changes in the date a holiday is celebrated because it conflicts with another holiday that is based on another calendar, or because the day of the holiday is deemed inauspicious (bad luck). To find out more about these uncertainties, see the footnote below, if any, for each specific religion.

Muslim Holidays : Muslim bank holidays, legal holidays and public holidays for Nepal were evaluated using the Umm al-Qura Calendar of Saudi Arabia which is used in Saudi Arabia and in most of the Persian Gulf States. Holidays may occur a day later in countries outside the Gulf region. The sunrises, sunsets, moon phases, moonrises and moonsets used in these calculations are based on the location of Mecca (latitude 21.42°N, longitude, 39.82°E, GMT+3 hours, no summer time rules). For more details on Muslim holidays, see Muslim Calendar Holidays. For Salat (prayer times) calculations, see our Freeware page.

Hindu Holidays : For Nepal, when calculating the date of bank holidays, legal holidays and public holidays based on the Hindu Lunar calendar, if the date is expunged (ie. does not occur), then we use the following existing date of the Hindu Lunar calendar. Local practice concerning expunged days may vary regionally. For more details on the evaluation of Hindu holidays, see Hindu Calendar holidays.

Solar Holidays : The calculation of moon phases, moonrises, moonsets, equinoxes, solstices, sunrises, and sunsets used to predict solar bank holidays, legal holidays and public holidays for Nepal are based on the geographical location of Kathmandou (latitude 27,7°N, longitude 85,3°E, GMT+5,5 hours, no summer time rules). Note that many countries in South-East Asia are progressively changing the recurrence rule of some of their lunar/solar holidays to rules based on fixed dates of the Western (Gregorian) calendar. Therefore, while the dates predicted above for 2009 and beyond are currently technically correct, the rules of these holidays may change in the next few years. For more details on lunar and solar holidays, see the Lunisolar Footnotes.

Disclaimer
In many parts of the world, holidays are subject to arbitrary, last minute, changes by local authorities. While every effort has been made to present an accurate list of 2008 bank holidays, legal holidays and public holidays for Nepal, we cannot accept any responsibility for any error or omission in the data presented above. You are therefore advised to verify the above dates with the embassy or consulate of Nepal, before planning any trip to Nepal. For last-minute updates to worldwide public holidays, visit our blog or subscribe to our free email newsletters.