Bibaha & Bratabandha Saait (Lagan) by Nepali Month: A Guide

In Nepali usage, a saait (also spelled sait or subha sait) is an auspicious moment fixed by the traditional almanac, the panchanga, for beginning an important act. A bibaha saait is the auspicious window for a Hindu marriage (bibaha/vivah), and a bratabandha saait is the window for the sacred-thread initiation (bratabandha or upanayana) of a boy. The word lagan (from lagna, the rising zodiac sign) is used interchangeably with saait when people ask about wedding dates, as in 'bihe ko lagan' or 'lagan saait'.

Because these dates are calculated from the lunar-solar calendar rather than fixed Gregorian days, they shift every year. The core building block is the tithi, or lunar day, which is why a wedding that is auspicious on a certain Nepali date falls on a different English date each year. Understanding the tithi is the first step to reading any saait list; see the glossary entry on tithi at /glossary/tithi for the underlying lunar-day system.

For this reason there is no single permanent 'wedding date list'. Instead, each Bikram Sambat (BS) year has its own set of saait days, published in the year's official panchanga. This page explains the durable pattern that repeats every year, so readers can understand why the season falls when it does and which months to check for a given year such as 2082 or 2083 BS.

A marriage date is not chosen at random; it must pass a screening the almanac-makers call panchanga shuddhi (purity of the five calendar limbs). The five limbs (panchanga literally means 'five limbs') are tithi (lunar day), vaar (weekday), nakshatra (lunar mansion), yoga and karana. A candidate day is accepted only when the tithi, nakshatra and weekday combination is favourable and free of the recognised defects.

Beyond the five limbs, two planetary conditions dominate wedding timing. Both Guru (Jupiter) and Shukra (Venus) must be udaya, meaning risen and visible, not combust or set (asta) near the Sun. When either planet is combust, marriages are suspended even in an otherwise good month, which is the single biggest reason some seasons have very few dates. The rising ascendant (lagna) at the ceremony must also be strong, which is why the exact clock time, not just the day, is specified in a full saait.

The traditional acceptable and avoided elements are broadly standardised across Nepali and wider Hindu almanacs, though the final published day-list is set by the panchanga for that year.

In Nepal the authority for these decisions is the Nepal Panchanga Nirnayak (Bikash) Samiti, the government's national committee for religious, astrological and festival matters. It operates under the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation and, under its formation order of 2077 BS, is mandated to revise, approve and publish panchangas; no wall calendar or almanac may be published in Nepal without its approval.

The committee fixes the year's tithis and festivals and, with them, the muhurta and saait for weddings, bratabandha and other rites, including major-festival timings such as Dashain. It also runs long-standing training programmes in astrology and Vedic ritual to maintain a consistent methodology across the country's panchanga-makers.

The official almanac for an upcoming BS year is typically finalised and released to the market a few weeks before the new year, around Falgun (February). For any specific year's exact wedding and bratabandha day-list, the committee's panchanga, and the reputable patros that reproduce it, are the correct source; that is why this page describes the recurring pattern rather than asserting specific dates.

The most important gap in the wedding calendar is Chaturmas, literally 'four months', the period when Lord Vishnu is believed to sleep. It begins on Harishayani (Devshayani) Ekadashi, the eleventh tithi of the bright fortnight of Ashadh (Ashadh Shukla Ekadashi), and ends on Haribodhini (Prabodhini) Ekadashi in the bright fortnight of Kartik (Kartik Shukla Ekadashi). During these months, weddings, bratabandha and other auspicious beginnings are traditionally not performed because the fruit of such rites is held to be diminished while Vishnu sleeps.

On Harishayani Ekadashi households plant and worship Tulsi (holy basil) as a form of Vishnu for the next four months. The season reopens on Haribodhini Ekadashi with Tulsi Vivah, the symbolic wedding of Tulsi to Vishnu, after which human weddings may resume. In practice this means the whole of Shrawan, Bhadra and Ashwin, the later part of Ashadh, and the earlier part of Kartik carry no marriage saait.

Ashwin also contains Sohra Shraddha (Pitru Paksha), the fortnight for honouring ancestors, which independently reinforces the avoidance of celebratory rites in that month. Because Chaturmas is tied to lunar tithis, its exact Gregorian dates shift by a couple of weeks each year, but the mid-Ashadh to mid-Kartik span is fixed in the Nepali calendar.

A second, separate pause comes from the Sun's position. When the Sun transits Dhanu (Sagittarius) and Meen (Pisces), the periods are called Kharmas (also Malmas or Dhanurmas/Meenmas), during which auspicious ceremonies are suspended. In the Nepali solar calendar these correspond closely to the months of Poush (Sun in Dhanu, roughly mid-December to mid-January) and Chaitra (Sun in Meen, roughly mid-March to mid-April).

This is why, even though Poush and Chaitra sit outside Chaturmas and within the otherwise favoured winter and spring, they carry no marriage saait in a normal year. It also explains the shape of the season: weddings run in Mangsir, then stop for Poush, resume in Magh and Falgun, and stop again for Chaitra before Baisakh reopens the calendar.

Occasionally an extra lunar month, Adhik Maas (a leap month, itself a form of Malmas), is inserted into the year. Any month so designated is treated as inauspicious for weddings, which can shorten a given year's season further and is one reason the total number of dates differs from year to year.

Marriages in Nepal are favoured during Uttarayana, the Sun's northward course from Maghe Sankranti (about 14 January, Magh 1) to Karka Sankranti (about mid-July, Shrawan 1). The one major exception outside Uttarayana is Mangsir, treated as one of the most auspicious wedding months of all. The following month-by-month pattern holds in a typical BS year, subject always to Jupiter and Venus being risen.

Reading a specific year, such as the 2082 BS season that ran through Mangsir 2082 (November-December 2025) to Falgun 2082 (February-March 2026), or the 2083 BS season, means applying this pattern and then checking the year's panchanga for the exact days and clock times.

Bratabandha (upanayana), the sacred-thread rite for boys, is timed by the same panchanga logic and is likewise barred during Chaturmas and Kharmas. Its saait therefore fall in the same broad windows as weddings, most commonly across Magh, Falgun, Baisakh and Jestha, with additional days in Mangsir and Ashadh (before Harishayani Ekadashi) in many years.

Compared with marriage, bratabandha often has a slightly wider set of acceptable days within an open month, because it does not depend on matching two individuals' horoscopes. Families still choose the day and clock time by the boy's birth details, so the personal saait is confirmed by a priest against the year's almanac.

As with weddings, the specific bratabandha dates for a year such as 2082 or 2083 BS are those listed in the official panchanga; the durable rule is simply that they cluster in the Uttarayana months and Mangsir and never fall in the pause periods.

Even within the open months, the count of usable saait varies sharply from year to year. The dominant factor is the combustion (asta) of Jupiter and Venus: when either planet is too close to the Sun to be visible, marriages are suspended until it rises again. In some years this wipes out most or all dates in an otherwise favoured month; for example, a recent season saw Magh and Falgun left with almost no wedding dates because Venus was set for an extended period.

Adhik Maas (leap months) and the precise dates on which Chaturmas and Kharmas begin and end further nudge the total up or down. The practical result is that Nepal often has far fewer wedding dates than couples wish to use, which concentrates ceremonies onto a handful of peak days and drives up demand for venues, caterers and priests during Mangsir and Falgun.

Because these specifics change annually and depend on precise astronomical positions, readers should confirm the exact bibaha saait and bratabandha saait for their year against the current official panchanga rather than any fixed list. This page is a durable guide to the pattern, not a substitute for the year's almanac.