Festivals
Baisakh 1 — the Bikram Sambat year turns in mid-April.
The Bikram Sambat year begins on Baisakh 1, which lands on 13 or 14 April. It is a public holiday, and the two things that fill the day are picnics and the Bisket Jatra chariots in Bhaktapur, which start days earlier. The dates for this year and next are below.
| Events | BS Date | AD Date | Day |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nepali New Year / Biska Jatra / Mesh SankrantiHoliday | 1 Baisakh 2083 | 14 Apr 2026 | Tuesday |
| New Year 2027 / National Poshak Day / New Year 2027 / Topi Day | 17 Poush 2083 | 1 Jan 2027 | Friday |
| Events | BS Date | AD Date | Day |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nepali New YearHoliday | 1 Baisakh 2084 | 14 Apr 2027 | Wednesday |
Dates on this page are read from the Bikram Sambat calendar tables published for each year, and the public-holiday flag follows the list the Government of Nepal gazettes. Where a family's own tradition differs from the general practice described here, the family's tradition is the one that applies.
HolidaysDays in each BS monthFestivals
There is no household ritual at the centre of Nepali New Year the way there is at Dashain. What there is: a public holiday, rivers and hillsides full of picnic groups with a speaker and a cooking pot, temples busier than usual, and greeting messages that begin arriving at midnight. Companies post their year-end numbers, newspapers publish year-ahead pieces, and the price of a tent at Kakani doubles.
Bhaktapur's new-year festival starts four days before Baisakh 1 and runs several days past it. A chariot carrying Bhairava is pulled through the town and fought over at the tug-of-war between the upper and lower halves; a sixty-foot lingo pole is raised at Yosin Khel and brought down on new year's day, and the crowd it falls into scatters at the last second every year. The jatra is dated by the solar calendar, not the lunar one, which is why it is the one major Nepali festival whose AD date barely moves.
Bikram Sambat turns on Baisakh 1. Nepal Sambat turns on Mha Puja during Tihar and is the year count used in Newar society, now also a public holiday. Tamu Lhosar (Gurung) falls at the end of Poush, Sonam Lhosar (Tamang, Hyolmo) in Magh, and Gyalpo Lhosar (Sherpa, Tibetan) in Falgun. The Tharu Maghi and the Kirat Yele Sambat mark the year turning too. Which one is 'the' new year depends on who you ask, and the government recognises several of them with holidays.
Baisakh 1 is the Sun's entry into sidereal Mesh, a solar event, so it stays pinned to mid-April and only wobbles between the 13th and the 14th as the entry moment drifts across midnight. This is the opposite of Dashain and Tihar, which follow lunar tithis and move by weeks.
Writing the new BS year on documents dated before Baisakh 1 — the year changes in April, not in January, and a cheque dated in Chaitra belongs to the old year. And assuming Bisket Jatra happens on new year's day itself: the chariot pulling starts several days earlier, and the pole falls on the first day of the year.
13 or 14 April, because Baisakh 1 is set by the Sun entering Mesh rather than by a lunar tithi.
Yes, nationally.
Several, kept by different communities: Bikram Sambat in Baisakh, Nepal Sambat during Tihar, and the Lhosars in Poush, Magh and Falgun.
