KATHMANDU - As Dashain, the great festival of Nepalis, fills the capital with festive energy, one of its most cherished customs is once again in the spotlight, even as it quietly disappears from many neighbourhoods. Swinging on the traditional ping has for generations been a defining joy of the festival, tied to the popular belief that a person must leave the ground at least once during Dashain. Yet reports from Kathmandu indicate that this beloved tradition, once a familiar sight of the festival season, is gradually fading from the city's festive landscape.
A custom that lifts the festival
Few customs capture the spirit of Dashain as warmly as the ping. For Nepali families, the swing is not simply a playground attraction but a ritual of celebration, one that brings children, parents and neighbours together in the open spaces of their communities. The season of the great festival is inseparable, in popular memory, from the sight and sound of swings in motion.
The custom carries meanings that go well beyond amusement. According to reports and cultural commentary published during this year's festivities:
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A cherished custom: Swinging on the traditional ping is regarded as an essential part of celebrating Dashain, passed down through generations of Nepali families.
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Leaving the ground at least once: There is a widely held belief that a person must leave the ground at least once during the festival, making the swing a near-obligatory experience for young and old alike.
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A shared celebration: The ping turns the festival into a communal event, drawing people out of their homes and into shared moments of joy and enthusiasm.
Ping as a symbol of joy and enthusiasm
The cultural weight of the swing has been underlined in an explainer on ping culture published by Gorkhapatra Online. In the piece, a former official of the Nepal Academy describes the ping as a symbol of joy and enthusiasm, framing it as an expression of the celebratory energy that defines the Dashain season.
That description captures why the tradition has endured for so long. The swing embodies the festival's central promise of renewal and happiness, offering participants a moment of flight at a time when families gather, blessings are exchanged and communities come together. To swing during Dashain is to take part in the festival itself, not merely to watch it pass by.
A fading sight in the capital
Despite this rich cultural resonance, reports from Kathmandu describe a tradition under pressure. The ping, once a fixture of the festival across the country, is gradually disappearing from the capital's neighbourhoods, and the custom of swinging is no longer the automatic part of Dashain that it once was for many urban families.
The decline is described as gradual rather than sudden, but its direction is clear. As the festival continues to be celebrated with enthusiasm in the capital, the traditional swing is finding a smaller place in how the celebration is expressed, raising concern among those who see the ping as an irreplaceable piece of Nepal's living heritage.
The contrast is visible in coverage of this year's festivities. Photographs of Dashain celebrations published by Ratopati capture the colour and energy of the festival, documenting how Nepalis in and around the capital continue to mark the occasion even as older customs such as the ping fade from everyday practice.
What is being lost
What disappears with the ping is more than a form of play. The swing was a point of contact between generations, a place where the festival's belief in leaving the ground at least once was handed from parents to children in the most literal way. Its decline in Kathmandu severs one of the more tangible links between the great festival of Nepalis and the physical, communal experience of celebrating it.
Cultural commentators, including the former Nepal Academy official cited in the explainer, place the ping firmly within the emotional vocabulary of the festival, as a symbol of joy and enthusiasm. Viewed in that light, the fading of the tradition in the capital represents a quiet narrowing of how Dashain is lived, even as the festival itself remains as important as ever.
Keeping the ping aloft
The belief that everyone should leave the ground at least once during Dashain remains a powerful reason for the custom's survival. It gives families a ritual obligation that is also a pleasure, ensuring that wherever a ping does rise during the festival, it quickly gathers children and adults alike in a queue for their turn.
Preserving the tradition, then, is less about staging a spectacle than about keeping a habit alive: erecting the swing, taking a turn and passing the experience on. The reports from Kathmandu suggest that this transmission is weakening in the capital, making each swing that does appear during the festival all the more significant.
For now, the ping continues to swing wherever communities choose to raise it, carrying with it the belief that has sustained it for generations. Whether the tradition regains its former place in the capital's Dashain celebrations remains to be seen, but its meaning as a symbol of joy and enthusiasm, as cultural voices have affirmed, is undiminished. In a festival defined by reunion and renewal, the simple act of leaving the ground, if only for a moment, still captures what Dashain is about.
