With at least ten long weekends, 2021 brings some good news for people who like to travel and celebrate a lot.

Though Nepal is a small Himalayan nation, it is rich in cultural diversities of around 125 ethnic, tribal, and social groups. The Nepali Government has acknowledged a number of holidays every month to accommodate all the major festivals, traditions, and cultures.

Here, we have enlisted all the public holidays and observances in Nepal in 2021 that includes national holidays, bank holidays, government holidays, and religious holidays.

List of Nepal Public Holidays 2021

Stay Tuned to NepaliSansar for Recent News and Updates on Nepali Holidays!

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Famous as one of the biggest religious, cultural and historic festivals in Nepal, Yenya (Kathmandu festival) or Indra Jatra is specially celebrated in Kathmandu and mainly by the Newari community.

An eight-day long celebration, Indra Jatra is divided into two events and is characterized by masked dancers who represent deities and demons. The dances are known as Lakhe Naach, Mahakali Naach, Lusiki Naach and Dash Avatar. Kumari Jatra is the other event celebrated during Indra Jatra.

During the Kumari Jatra, a chariot procession of the Living Goddess Kumari along with Lord Ganesh and Lord Bhairava is conducted throughout the route around Durbar Square. The procession is accompanied by classical dancers, masked dancers and musicians.

The procession that starts around 3 pm commemorates the ‘Visitation of Rain God’, Indra.

According to the legend, the young Indra dressed up a farmer comes to the earth in search of Parijat, a flower that his mother Dakini requires to conduct a ritual. However, the young boy gets caught in the act and is captured by the meadow’s owner.

After some time, Lord Indra’s troubled mother comes to the earth to search for her long-gone child. When the citizens find out who the child is, they quickly release and let him go only on the basis of some conditions. They ask him to visit the earth every year during that time & be displayed a prisoner for 7 days and to provide them good rain for the crops.

Dakini also promises to send enough dew throughout winter for good crops and take with her to heaven all the recently departed persons in the past year.

Following the legend, people display the image of Lord Indra in captivity for seven days. The festival is used to worship Lord Indra and Dakini for the harvest and commemorate the dead people.

Indra Jatra Celebrations in Nepal

Also Read:

• Newari Community Observes ‘Lord Bhimsen Jatra’
• Week-long ‘Gaijatra’ All the Way in Nepal!
• A Glance at Nepal’s New Year Festivals: Bisket Jatra and Sindhur Festival

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Indra Jatra, an eight-day long famous Nepali Hindu festival, began yesterday amidst the huge presence of devotees praying the king of Gods and rain-god, Indra.

Marking the first day of the festival, celebrated in reverence to Indra, devotees erected the sacred Indradhoj lingo in Hanumandhoka in Basantapur Darbar Square of Kathmandu Valley waving a flag named after the lord.

The lingo-erection procession went on amidst huge public presence. The lingo, brought to Hanumandhoka all the way from a jungle in Bhaktapur, was erected with the help of Nepal Army, Armed Police Force and locals.

As part of celebrations, devotees made dance performances on the streets of Kathmandu. Devotees, dressed in Lakhe costumes and masks, performed Nepal’s one of the famous dances called Lakhe dances.

According to Nepali lunar calendar, Indra Jatra usually falls on the fourth day of the waxing moon in the month of Bhadra, and is celebrated to mark the victory of gods over demons to release Jayanta, the son of Lord Indra.

This festival is majorly celebrated among Newari communities following Hinduism and Buddhism.

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While some people consider Indra Jatra as a day to thank God Indra for the rains, others are of the opinion that the festival honors Bhairava, Lord Shiva’s fierce manifestation, who is believed to destroy evil. As per a legend, when Indra once came to Kathmandu valley to steal the parijat flower for his mother, he was imprisoned. Dagini, his mother, was able to secure his release from the local people after promising two things – entry into heaven for those people who died in the past year and sufficient rains to ensure a good harvest.

The festival is also known by the traditional name Yenya and begins with the erection of a ceremonial flagpole outside the Hanuman Dhoka at the Kathmandu Durbar Square, which is the main venue for the festivities. The shrines and ancient buildings around the Durbar Square are illuminated with oil wicks on each night of the festival.

During the festival, the chariot of Kumari, the Living Goddess, is taken out in a procession through the main streets of Kathmandu. The mask of Bhairava is displayed in front of Kumari’s chariot procession to signify that she is always under his protection. The procession lasts for three days and is witnessed by thousands of people in festive costumes. Masked dancers accompanied by loud drums perform in the streets during the evenings.

On the last day, the erected pole is brought down marking the end of the festivities. The end of the Indra Jatra heralds the beginning of Dashain, Nepal’s biggest festival.

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