Nepal is celebrating Bada Dashain, the country's biggest cultural festival, with worship of the goddess Durga Bhawani, golden jamara and long-awaited family reunions, even though this year's festivities are shadowed by natural disasters and shortages of essential goods. The festival began with Ghatasthapana and runs from Ashwin Shukla Pratipada to Kojagrat Purnima, a period in which millions of people have left the Kathmandu Valley for their hometowns and villages across the country. The homecoming comes against a difficult backdrop: floods and landslides have devastated settlements in parts of Nepal, while households preparing for the celebrations have also faced shortages of cooking gas and other daily essentials.
Ten days of worship, jamara and blessings
The observances opened with Ghatasthapana, the ritual that formally begins the festival. Families install a sacred vessel symbolizing Durga Bhawani and sow jamara, the barley shoots that are nurtured until they turn golden and become the festival's most recognizable ornament. Devotees across the country worship Durga Bhawani at Shakti Peeths during the celebration period, which spans the bright fortnight of the lunar month of Ashwin.
The most cherished rituals follow in the days before the festival closes on Kojagrat Purnima. Elders apply tika on the foreheads of younger family members and give them blessings, while jamara is tucked behind their ears. As reflected in festival coverage by Gorkhapatra Online, the celebration weaves together religious devotion, family bonds and tradition in a way few other occasions in Nepal can match. Shared meals, visits among relatives and the exchange of blessings give the festival its emotional core, drawing together generations under one roof.
The great homecoming from the capital
Dashain's most visible feature is the mass movement of people out of the Kathmandu Valley. Millions return home from the capital and other urban centers to celebrate in their ancestral villages, making the festival the country's largest annual family reunion. Workers, students and professionals travel to be with parents, grandparents and extended relatives, and for many families the celebration is the one occasion each year when everyone gathers in the same place.
The festival calendar, running from Ashwin Shukla Pratipada to Kojagrat Purnima, gives households a shared rhythm of rituals, visits and festivities. Homes are cleaned and decorated, jamara and tika are distributed, and elders are honored in ceremonies that continue until the festival ends on the full moon of Kojagrat Purnima.
Disaster fears and shortages cloud the mood
The joy of this year's festival is tempered by serious concerns. An editorial in Nagarik News titled "Fear of disaster during the festival" captures the anxiety running beneath the celebrations, as floods and landslides have devastated settlements across the country.
The practical difficulties facing households during this festival season include:
- floods and landslides that have devastated settlements and disrupted lives in affected areas
- shortages of cooking gas that complicate the preparation of festive meals
- broader shortages of other daily essentials at the height of the celebration period
Together, these challenges have made this year's observance more subdued than usual, with families in disaster-hit areas celebrating amid loss and households elsewhere contending with the cost and difficulty of securing supplies.
Economic significance, evolving customs and health advice
Beyond its religious and emotional weight, Dashain carries substantial economic significance for Nepal. The festival season is traditionally a period of heightened economic activity, with families spending on food, clothing and celebrations, and with markets and businesses counting on festive demand. Recent coverage, including reporting by Khabarhub, has noted the festival's economic importance alongside its cultural one.
At the same time, the way Nepalis celebrate is changing. Coverage has drawn attention to changing family customs, as urbanization, migration and modern lifestyles reshape traditions once observed in joint family settings. While the central rituals of Ghatasthapana, jamara and tika remain firmly in place, the scale and shape of celebrations are adapting to contemporary life.
Health precautions during the holidays have also been highlighted in the coverage, with families encouraged to remain mindful of their wellbeing while traveling, feasting and gathering in large numbers over the festive period.
This year's Dashain therefore blends celebration with caution. As tika is applied and jamara exchanged in homes from the Kathmandu Valley to remote hill villages, the festival's central promise of family togetherness endures, even as floods, landslides and shortages remind the country of the difficulties that accompany the season. The celebrations conclude on Kojagrat Purnima, closing a festival that remains, despite this year's challenges, the most unifying event on Nepal's cultural calendar.
