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Public Holidays and Bank Holidays for Nepal

The list of Nepal bank holidays, national holidays and public holidays for 2009, 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 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, and beyond. For details, please visit our licensing information page or

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10 Oct 2009 (Kantipur-Kathmandu) The president of Nepal's Nhunda Organising Committee, Tirtha Ram Dangol, met Nepal's Prime Minister, Madhav Kumar Nepal, on the occasion of Nepal Sambat 1130 to renew calls for the implementation of Nepal Sambat as a National Sambat. • 25 Sep 2009 (eKantipur-Kathmandu) The government of Nepal has announced a week-long public sector holiday starting today, Friday, September 25, 2009, to mark this year's Dashain Hindu festival. • 20 Sep 2009 (The Himalayan Times-Kathmandu) Earlier today, Nepal's newly formed Ruel-e-Hilal Committee formed to sight the Shawwal new moon announced that the new moon had been glimpsed at around 6.30 p.m. local time, and based on the sighting, the government of Nepal announced that the upcoming Eid would be celebrated Monday, September 21, 2009. • 25 Jul 2009 (República-Kathmandu) Following a report by the Administration Restructuring Commission (ARC), the Government of Nepal is preparing to reduce the number of public holidays currently enjoyed by civil servants, while moving to a 2-day weekend. • 21 Jul 2009 (Nepal News-Kathmandu) The government of Nepal, as per the request of the Panchanga Decision Committee, has declared a public holiday for Wednesday, July 22, 2009, the day on which the longest total solar eclipse of the century takes place. • 09 Apr 2009 (Nepal News-Kathmandu) The government of Nepal has announced that tomorrow, Friday, April 10, 2009, would be a one-off public holiday in the six vacant constituencies which will hold a CA-by-election on that date. • 25 Mar 2009 (The Himalayan Times-Kathmandu) At a cabinet meeting, earlier today, the government of Nepal declared tomorrow, Thursday, March 26, 2009, a public holiday, in the Kathmandu Valley (ie. the Kathmandu, Lalitpur, and Bhaktapur districts) for the Ghode Jatra festival. • 22 Mar 2009 (Nepal News-Kathmandu) Nepal's Home Ministry is preparing to table a proposal to amend the list of public holidays in 2066 BS to include the Republic Day public holiday, at the next cabinet meeting. • 16 Mar 2009 (The Himalayan Times-Kathmandu) As part of a six-point deal, designed to end the five-day long agitation of the Muslim community, the government of Nepal agreed to "... positively consider to provide public holidays in the festivals of the Muslims". • 24 Feb 2009 (Republica-Kathmandu) Late today, Nepal's Ministry of Home Affairs announced that the government had declared Wednesday, February 25, 2009, as an official public holiday to mark Gyallo Lhosar. • 05 Feb 2009 (Xinhua-Kathmandu) Earlier today, the committee formed to review public holidays recommended that Nepal change over to a five-day week. • 14 Jan 2009 (Republica-Kathmandu) Nepal's Home Secretary, Dr Govind Prasad Kusum, will head a four-member committee to review and systematize the declaration and duration of public holidays in Nepal. • 12 Jan 2009 (Nepal Mountain News-Kathmandu) Late on Sunday, Nepal's Ministry of Culture and State Restructuring announced that this year's Maghe Sankranti public holiday would be observed nationally. • 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. • 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. • Nepal International Codes NP and NPL (2 and 3-letter ISO3166 codes) and .np (ICANN national top-level internet domain). • Other Sources of Information The following specialized websites are also a good source of Nepal information and news: 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 (Nepal maps, demographics and economic statistics), the IFES (information covering upcoming elections, referenda, electoral structures and voter participation in Nepal), and Wikipedia (includes Nepal commemorative dates that are not necessarily public holidays).

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 2010 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 2009 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.