Holi (Fagu Purnima) in Nepal: The Festival of Colours Guide

Holi is the Hindu festival of colours, celebrated across Nepal as Fagu Purnima (also written Phagu Purnima or Falgu Purnima). It falls on the full-moon day (Shukla Purnima) of the Nepali month of Falgun, which lands in late February or early March, and ranks alongside Dashain and Tihar as one of the country's biggest and most joyful festivals.

The festival celebrates several things at once: the arrival of spring and the end of winter, the triumph of good over evil captured in the legend of Holika, and, in the wider Hindu tradition, the playful love of Krishna and Radha, from which the custom of throwing colours is often traced. It is a day to forgive, forget and mend broken relationships, when barriers of age, caste and status dissolve in a shared cloud of coloured powder.

Because it follows the lunar calendar, the exact Gregorian date shifts each year. The one feature that sets Nepal's Holi apart from almost anywhere else is that it is spread over two consecutive days across different parts of the country.

Nepal is unusual in celebrating Holi on two different days. The hills and mountains, including the Kathmandu Valley, Pokhara and towns such as Dharan, play Holi first, on Falgun Shukla Purnima itself. The Terai and Madhesh region in the southern plains celebrate the next day, on the same date as Holi in neighbouring India.

In BS 2082 this meant the hills marked Holi on Falgun 18, Monday 2 March 2026, and the Terai on Falgun 19, Tuesday 3 March 2026. The one-day gap follows a long-standing calendrical and cultural tradition tied to how the full moon and regional observance are reckoned, so for two days running some part of Nepal is drenched in colour.

For visitors this is a genuine advantage: if you miss the main day in Kathmandu, you can travel south and catch the celebration again in the Terai the following day. The public holiday, too, is staggered, with the hill and valley districts closing on the first day and Terai districts on the second.

The name Holi comes from Holika, and the festival's core story explains why it symbolises the victory of good over evil. The demon king Hiranyakashipu had won a boon that made him almost impossible to kill and demanded to be worshipped as a god. His own son Prahlad, however, remained devoted to Lord Vishnu and refused to worship his father.

Enraged, Hiranyakashipu enlisted his sister Holika, who had a boon making her immune to fire, to sit in a blazing pyre with Prahlad on her lap so the boy would burn while she survived. Through Prahlad's pure devotion and Vishnu's protection the plan was reversed: Holika was consumed by the flames and Prahlad emerged unharmed. The bonfire lit on the eve of Holi, Holika Dahan, re-enacts the burning of Holika and the destruction of evil and negativity.

Alongside this legend, Holi carries the spirit of spring renewal and the folklore of Krishna, who is said to have playfully smeared colours on Radha and the gopis, giving the festival its riot of colour. The different powders even carry meanings of their own, from red for love and fertility to green for spring and new growth.

In the Kathmandu Valley, Holi season opens about a week before the main day with the raising of the Chir, a tall ceremonial bamboo pole hung with strips of colourful cloth, at Basantapur (Kathmandu Durbar Square). The Chir acts as the public signal that Holi has arrived and that preparations should begin; each strip of cloth is a token of good luck.

On the eve of the main festival the Chir is taken down and ceremonially burned in a bonfire, the act of Holika Dahan that symbolises the burning of Holika and the triumph of good over evil. Families and communities also light their own bonfires and perform puja, praying for negativity and evil spirits to be consumed by the flames.

The next morning the colours begin. Basantapur and the surrounding Durbar Square become the beating heart of the celebration, drawing thousands of Nepalis and foreign tourists into an open-air party of powder, water and music.

The central act of Holi is smearing and throwing colour. People rub abir and gulal (dry coloured powders, including red vermilion) on one another's faces and clothes, greeting friends and strangers alike with handfuls of colour and cries of celebration. Water is just as important: revellers spray each other with water guns and buckets and hurl water balloons, which in Nepal are known as lola.

Music and dance run through the whole day. Big cities host public concerts, DJ stages and traditional performances, and in Kathmandu, Pokhara and Dharan these are often televised with celebrity guests. Streets, rooftops and courtyards fill with dancing, drumming and singing from morning until the colours run out.

The atmosphere is exuberant and inclusive, but it is also intense and crowded, especially around Basantapur. Some celebrants also consume bhang, a cannabis-based preparation, in food or drink, as at Shivaratri.

Holi is also a day of feasting and sharing. Households prepare festive sweets and snacks and welcome guests with plates of food between rounds of colour. Common treats include gujiya (sweet fried dumplings filled with khoa and dry fruits), sel roti, malpua, papad, pakora and other fried delicacies, washed down with cooling drinks.

The best-known Holi drink is thandai, a spiced milk drink flavoured with almonds, fennel and other ingredients, which in some households is prepared with bhang. As with any festival food, visitors should be aware of what a drink contains before accepting it. For a fuller treatment of dishes tied to each festival, see the festival foods encyclopedia on this site.

Holi is welcoming to outsiders, and being coloured by strangers is part of the fun, but a little care keeps the day enjoyable. The single most important rule is consent: it is polite to ask or read the mood before applying colour to someone, to respect anyone who signals they do not want to take part, and never to force colour, water or bhang on another person.

Cheap synthetic colours can contain harmful chemicals such as lead, chromium, mercury and copper sulphate, and dry abir can include mica, silica or ground glass, which irritate skin and eyes. Choose natural or herbal colours where you can, oil your skin and hair beforehand as a barrier, wear old full-sleeved clothes and sunglasses, and avoid contact lenses. Protect your phone, wallet and documents in a sealed plastic bag or waterproof pouch, because water balloons and buckets are everywhere.

Crowds around Basantapur can be dense, so keep valuables secure, drink plenty of water, and know that the celebration tends to wind down by early afternoon. Solo travellers, especially women, may prefer to celebrate in a group or at an organised, ticketed event.

Holi always falls on Falgun Shukla Purnima, the full moon of Falgun, which places it in late February or March, but the precise Gregorian date changes every year with the lunar calendar. In BS 2082 the hills celebrated on Falgun 18 (Monday 2 March 2026) and the Terai on Falgun 19 (Tuesday 3 March 2026).

In BS 2083 Holi falls in the second half of March 2027, on or around 22 to 23 March 2027, with the same one-day hills-then-Terai split; confirm the exact tithi against the official panchang, as timings can move observance by a day.

For year-by-year confirmed dates alongside Dashain, Tihar and Buddha Jayanti, see our festival dates by year page rather than relying on a single fixed date.