Dashain 2026: Dates, the Full 15-Day Schedule, and Tika Day

Quick Answer

Dashain — Nepal's longest festival, also called Bada Dashain or Vijaya Dashami — runs from Sunday, October 11 to Sunday, October 25, 2026. It is a fifteen-day national festival marking Durga's victory over the buffalo demon Mahishasura, and unlike Kathmandu's street jatras it is observed everywhere in the country at once, mostly inside homes.

Two days carry almost all of the visitor-facing activity: Fulpati, when the sacred plants travel from Gorkha Durbar to Hanuman Dhoka, and Vijaya Dashami, the tika day when families gather to receive blessings from their elders.

Use the October 2026 calendar for date browsing and the canonical Dashain page for the full festival entity, all fifteen days, and photographs.

2026 Dates

Festival	Start	End	Nepali calendar
Dashain 2026 (Vijaya Dashami)	Sunday, October 11, 2026	Sunday, October 25, 2026	Ashwin 25 - Kartik 8, 2083 BS

Nepal festival dates follow the lunar Bikram Sambat calendar, so the Gregorian dates move every year: Dashain began on October 3 in 2024 and September 22 in 2025. Do not reuse the 2026 dates for a later trip — check the current Nepal festival calendar.

The 2027 dates are not yet fixed. Lunar dates become final only when the official 2084 BS patro is published, so there is no reliable Dashain 2027 date to plan against at the time of writing.

The Fifteen-Day Shape

Dashain is fifteen days long, but the ritual weight is not spread evenly across them. The first ten days are the Navaratri cycle, running from the sowing of the jamara to the tika; the last five carry the tika visits onward to the closing full moon.

Ritual day	Name	2026 date	Nepali date	What happens
1	Ghatasthapana	Sunday, October 11	Ashwin 25	The kalash is installed and barley is sown in the household puja room. The jamara that grows from it is what gets placed behind the ear on Dashami.
1-9	Navaratri	October 11-20	Ashwin 25 - Kartik 3	Nine nights, one form of Durga each.
7	Fulpati	Saturday, October 17	Ashwin 31	The sacred plants are carried from Gorkha Durbar to Hanuman Dhoka at Kathmandu Durbar Square.
8	Maha Ashtami	Sunday, October 18	Kartik 1	Kalratri, the fierce night. Khadga Puja consecrates blades; sacrifices are made at Kot and at Durga temples.
9	Maha Navami	Tuesday, October 20	Kartik 3	The last Navaratri night. Vishwakarma Puja consecrates tools, machines, and vehicles. Taleju Temple opens to Hindu devotees — its one day of public access in the year.
10	Vijaya Dashami	Wednesday, October 21	Kartik 4	Tika and jamara from elders to juniors. The single most important day of the Nepali year for most households.
15	Kojagrat Purnima	Sunday, October 25	Kartik 8	The Ashwin full moon closes the season. Laxmi walks the earth asking who is awake; households keep vigil.

These dates are read off the official 2083 BS patro rather than counted forward from Ghatasthapana, and in 2026 the difference matters. A lunar tithi can be skipped or doubled in a given year, and this year one is doubled: Kartik 2 (Monday, October 19) carries no separate Dashain observance, so Maha Navami falls on Kartik 3 and the tika on Kartik 4. The ten ritual days therefore span eleven calendar days, and a schedule built by simply counting from October 11 puts the tika a day early.

Two of the fifteen days are not on the table because they are not fixed to a date: the ping, the bamboo swing raised at crossroads and hillside terraces in the weeks before the festival and taken down after it, and kite flying, which fills the Kathmandu Valley sky across the whole period.

The Ten Nights of Navaratri

The first nine nights and the tenth day form the older core of the festival. Each night is dedicated to one of the nine forms of Durga, worshipped in turn — the Navadurga Temple in Bhaktapur works through the cycle in exactly this way, and the Bhadrakali Temple in Kathmandu is one of the busiest Navaratri destinations in the capital.

The intensity builds rather than holds steady. Ashtami's Kalratri is the fiercest night, when the sacrifices at Kot and at Durga temples across the country begin; Navami continues them through the morning and adds Vishwakarma Puja, in which every tool and vehicle in the household economy is cleaned, garlanded, and worshipped. By the end of Navami the devotional and martial parts of the festival are finished, and what remains is celebration.

Tika Day

Vijaya Dashami — Wednesday, October 21 in 2026 — is when the country stops. The head of each household applies a mixture of rice, yoghurt, and vermilion to the forehead of every junior family member and places a sprig of the jamara grown since Ghatasthapana behind their ear, with a blessing. Families travel long distances to receive tika from the eldest surviving relative, which is why Nepal's roads and airports are at their most congested in the days before.

The tika period does not end on Dashami. It runs through the days that follow — Ekadashi, Dwadashi, and onward — as families work through the rounds of visits, and it is traditionally complete by Kojagrat Purnima on the full moon.

Where to See It

Dashain is a household festival first, so there is less to watch on the street than at a jatra. The public moments are concentrated in a few places:

• Kathmandu Durbar Square and Hanuman Dhoka — the Fulpati arrival on the seventh day, and the Kot sacrifices on Ashtami.
• Taleju Temple — closed to the public all year, open to Hindu devotees on Maha Navami. Non-Hindus are not admitted.
• Gorkha Durbar — the origin point of the Fulpati procession, several days' notice ahead of its arrival in Kathmandu.
• Navadurga Temple, Bhaktapur and Bhadrakali Temple — the Navaratri circuit in the valley.
• Dakshinkali Temple — the valley's principal sacrifice site, at its most crowded during Dashain.
• Outside the valley — Bindhyabasini Temple in Pokhara, and the Navaratri and Dashain observances at Silgadhi in Doti in the far west.

How to Plan a Visit

Dashain is the hardest fortnight of the year to travel in Nepal, and the reason is not the festival itself but the migration around it.

• Book transport weeks ahead. Millions of people travel to their family homes for tika. Buses and domestic flights sell out, and prices rise.
• Expect closures. Most businesses, offices, and many restaurants close, particularly around Dashami. Government offices shut for the better part of the period.
• Do not plan a trek departure across tika day. Getting to a trailhead in the two days either side of Dashami is a scheduling problem, not a scenery problem.
• Time it deliberately or avoid it deliberately. The Ghatasthapana-to-Fulpati window is the least disrupted stretch, with the ritual build-up visible and the transport crush not yet started. The days around Dashami are the opposite.
• If a Nepali family invites you for tika, accept. It is a genuine honour and the only way to see what the festival actually is.

Visitor Etiquette

• Animal sacrifice is a real and public part of Ashtami and Navami at Kot and at Durga temples. Decide in advance whether you want to be there, and do not photograph it without asking.
• Taleju's Navami opening is for Hindu devotees only. Do not attempt to enter.
• Ask before photographing tika ceremonies. They are family occasions, not public events.
• Remove shoes and leather items at temple thresholds, and keep clear of queues at sacrifice sites.
• Dress modestly at temples throughout the period; the crowds are devotional, not touristic.

Related Pages

• Dashain festival page — the full entity, all elements, and photographs
• Tihar — the festival of lights, two weeks after Dashain closes
• Sel roti — the ring-shaped rice bread inseparable from both festivals
• October 2026 calendar — everything else falling in the month
• Nepal festival calendar — dates for the year ahead