For fifteen days every autumn Nepal turns inward. Dashain is the festival the whole year is organised around — the one for which migrant workers fly home from the Gulf, students cross the country on overnight buses, and Kathmandu, a city of several million, becomes quiet enough to hear birds on Durbar Marg. Bamboo swings go up in village fields, kites fill the sky above the rooftops, and on the tenth day everyone younger receives a red tika and a blessing from everyone older.
It also falls in October, more often than not, which is the month most visitors choose for Nepal. The skies have cleared after the monsoon, the mountains are sharp, and the trekking trails are at their busiest. So the question is rarely whether your trip will overlap with Dashain. It is what that overlap will mean.
The short answer: Dashain is a wonderful time to be in Nepal and a poor time to need a government office, a bank or a last-minute bus ticket. This guide sets out the festival, the dates, and the practical effects, and links to the detailed articles on each part.
What Dashain Is
Dashain — also written Dasain, and called Vijaya Dashami or Bada Dashain — celebrates the victory of the goddess Durga over the buffalo demon Mahishasura after nine nights of battle. A second story, told alongside it, is the victory of Ram over the demon king Ravan. Either way the meaning is the same: good prevails, and the tenth day is the day of victory.
In practice it is a family festival more than a temple one. The rituals happen at home: barley seeds sown in a dark room on the first day, a goat bought and slaughtered around the eighth, new clothes, card games, a great deal of food, and on the tenth day the tika — a paste of rice, yoghurt and vermilion pressed onto the forehead by the elders of the family, with sprouted barley called jamara tucked behind the ear. Our article on the fifteen days of Dashain walks through it day by day.
It is celebrated by Hindus across the country and, in their own forms, by many communities who are not strictly Hindu. The Newars of the Kathmandu valley call it Mohani and mark it with their own feasts and masked dances. In the high Buddhist valleys — the Khumbu, Upper Mustang, Tsum — it matters far less, which is one reason trekking during Dashain is easier than most people expect.
When Dashain Falls
Dashain follows the lunar calendar, so the dates move every year, anywhere between late September and late October. The festival runs from the new moon to the full moon of the month of Ashwin.
| 2026 | 2027 (provisional) | |
|---|---|---|
| Ghatasthapana (day 1) | Sunday 11 October | Thursday 30 September |
| Phulpati (day 7) | Saturday 17 October | Wednesday 6 October |
| Maha Ashtami (day 8) | Sunday 18 October | Thursday 7 October |
| Maha Navami (day 9) | Tuesday 20 October | Friday 8 October |
| Vijaya Dashami — the tika | Wednesday 21 October | Saturday 9 October |
| Kojagrat Purnima (day 15) | Sunday 25 October | Around 14 October |
A late Dashain, like 2026, sits squarely in peak season: the clearest weather of the year and the fullest trails. An early one, like 2027, can still catch the tail of the monsoon in its first days. Our guide to Nepal's trekking seasons explains the weather either side.
What a Visitor Actually Sees
Much of Dashain happens behind house doors, and a visitor who expects street parades every day will be puzzled. What you do see is the country changing around the festival.
- Swings. Villages build tall bamboo swings called linge ping in the first week, and everyone from toddlers to grandmothers takes a turn. See our guide to Dashain swings and kites.
- Kites. From the rooftops of Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur, in the weeks before the festival and through it.
- Markets at full stretch. Ason and Indra Chowk in the old city are shoulder to shoulder in the week before Phulpati, as families buy clothes, spices and gifts.
- Goats on the road. Herds of mountain goats are driven down from Mustang and trucked into the cities. The festival's meat, and the reason for it, is covered in animal sacrifice at Dashain.
- The Phulpati parade at Tundikhel in Kathmandu on the seventh day, and the queue at the Taleju temple on the ninth — the one day of the year it opens.
- Red foreheads. On the tenth day and for four days after it, almost everyone you meet is wearing a tika the size of a coin.
- An empty capital. Kathmandu on tika day has open roads, clean air and shuttered shops. Our guide to Kathmandu during Dashain covers what stays open.
How Dashain Changes a Trip
None of this stops a holiday. It does punish a plan that assumes normal service.
| What | During Dashain | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Government offices | Closed for a week or more around the tika | Arrange restricted-area permits and visa extensions before Phulpati — see permits during Dashain |
| Banks and ATMs | Banks closed; ATMs run dry outside the big cities | Withdraw cash before the holiday starts — see costs and money |
| Buses and highways | Packed leaving Kathmandu before Phulpati and returning after the tika | Travel against the flow, or fly — see getting around |
| Domestic flights | Full, at the top fare | Book as soon as your dates are fixed |
| Shops and restaurants | Tourist areas mostly open; local shops shut for the main days | See what is open and closed |
| Heritage sites | Open, and at their most alive | Go — the temples are the point this week |
| Trekking lodges | Open; busiest month of the year | Book the popular routes early |
| Guides and porters | Many want to be home for the tika | Confirm your crew early — see guides and porters at Dashain |
Trekking During Dashain
October is the best trekking month in Nepal, and Dashain does not change that. Lodges are open on every main route. In the Sherpa villages of the Khumbu the festival barely registers, so the Everest Base Camp trek runs as it does any other week of the season — the details are in Everest Base Camp during Dashain.
The Annapurna foothills are different. The Gurung and Magar villages there celebrate, swings stand at the edge of every settlement, and the short routes fill with Nepali trekkers using the holiday: Poon Hill, Mardi Himal and Annapurna Base Camp are as busy as they get. See Annapurna treks during Dashain, and for the holiday week itself, our pick of short treks for the Dashain holiday.
The one hard constraint is paperwork. Treks into restricted areas — Manaslu, Upper Mustang, Tsum Valley — need a permit that only a government office can issue, and that office is shut.
Where to Be for Dashain
| Place | Why | Read more |
|---|---|---|
| Kathmandu | The Phulpati parade, the Taleju temple on the ninth day, kites, and the strange pleasure of an empty city | Kathmandu during Dashain |
| Bhaktapur | Mohani, the Newar Dashain, and the first appearance of the Navadurga masked dancers | Bhaktapur during Dashain |
| Gorkha and Manakamana | The palace the Phulpati sets out from, and the country's busiest wish-fulfilling temple | Gorkha and Manakamana |
| Pokhara | The Bindhyabasini temple, the lake, and village swings on the ridges above | Pokhara during Dashain |
| A hill village | The festival as most Nepalis live it — swings, a goat, a tika from the head of the house | Ghalegaun and Sirubari homestays |
Taking Part
Visitors are often invited to receive a tika — by a guide's family, a hotel owner, a homestay host. Say yes. It involves sitting down, receiving the paste and the jamara with a blessing, and being fed more goat curry and beaten rice than you can finish. Our guide to receiving Dashain tika covers what to wear, what to bring and what to say, and the Dashain food guide covers the feast.
If you carry a camera, the festival is generous to it, provided you ask before pointing it at a family ritual — see photographing Dashain. Our Kathmandu Photography Tour can be timed for the week.
A Sample Week Around the Tika
This is the shape of a trip that uses Dashain rather than colliding with it. It works in any year; the 2026 dates are given as the example.
| Day | 2026 date | Plan |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Thu 15 Oct | Arrive Kathmandu. Withdraw cash. Any permit paperwork goes in tomorrow, the last working day |
| 2 | Fri 16 Oct | Old city and the Ason markets at their busiest — Kathmandu day tour |
| 3 | Sat 17 Oct | Phulpati: the parade at Tundikhel in the afternoon |
| 4 | Sun 18 Oct | Maha Ashtami: Bhaktapur for Mohani; evening on the valley rim at Nagarkot |
| 5 | Mon 19 Oct | Fly to Pokhara before the tika-day standstill |
| 6 | Tue 20 Oct | Maha Navami: Bindhyabasini temple and the lake — Pokhara day tour |
| 7 | Wed 21 Oct | Vijaya Dashami: tika with a host family, village swings above the lake |
| 8 onward | From Thu 22 Oct | Start a trek — Poon Hill or Mardi Himal — while the roads are still quiet |
The same week fits inside our Kathmandu & Pokhara Tour, and the longer Best of Nepal Tour adds Chitwan and Lumbini either side of the festival.
Who Should Come at Dashain, and Who Should Not
Come if you want to see Nepal being itself rather than performing for visitors, if your plans are booked in advance, and if a few closed shops do not bother you. Think twice if your trip depends on arranging things on arrival — a restricted-area permit, a visa extension, a bus seat for tomorrow — or if the sight of animal sacrifice would spoil a day for you.
We weigh both sides in is Dashain a good time to visit Nepal?, and if you are choosing between the two autumn festivals, Dashain vs Tihar sets them side by side.
