Nepali Months, 6 Seasons (Ritu) & Day Names: A Reference Hub

Nepal's national calendar is the Bikram Sambat (BS), a solar calendar that runs about 56 years and 8 months ahead of the Gregorian (Anno Domini, AD) calendar. Its year begins on 1 Baisakh, which falls in mid-April, so the twelve Nepali months in order are Baisakh, Jestha, Ashar, Shrawan, Bhadra, Ashwin, Kartik, Mangsir, Poush, Magh, Falgun and Chaitra. In Devanagari (Nepali script) these are बैशाख, जेठ, असार, साउन, भदौ, असोज, कात्तिक, मंसिर, पुस, माघ, फागुन and चैत.

Unlike the Gregorian calendar, where each month has a fixed length, BS month lengths vary from year to year because the calendar tracks the sun's actual passage through the zodiac. Across the published tables of the Nepal Panchanga Nirnayak Samiti (the government-recognised almanac committee), a BS month can be 29, 30, 31 or 32 days long, so a full BS year runs 365 or 366 days. The longest months are usually Jestha, Shrawan and Ashar (often 31–32 days); Poush is frequently the shortest at 29 days.

Because the BS calendar is solar, each Nepali month lines up neatly — but not exactly — with a pair of AD months, always starting in the middle of one and ending in the middle of the next. For example, in BS 2082 (AD 2025–26) Baisakh ran 14 April to 13 May and Chaitra ran 15 March to 13 April. These start/end dates shift by a day or two between years, which is why printed Nepali calendars (patro) are reissued annually rather than reused.

The single most searched question here is “Baisakh which English month?” The short answer: Baisakh, the first month of the Nepali year, straddles mid-April to mid-May in the English (Gregorian) calendar. It never maps to exactly one English month, because BS month boundaries fall in the middle of AD months. The Nepali New Year (Nawa Barsha, 1 Baisakh) therefore lands on or around 13–15 April every year.

The same mid-to-mid logic applies to every month. Jestha spans mid-May to mid-June, Ashar mid-June to mid-July, Shrawan mid-July to mid-August, and so on, with Chaitra closing the year across mid-March to mid-April. A quick mental rule for tourists and students: take the AD month a Nepali month starts in, and the Nepali month covers its second half plus the first half of the next AD month.

These pairings are stable to within a day or two across years, so they are reliable for planning trips, festivals and academic terms. If you need the exact Gregorian date of a specific BS date, use a verified BS–AD date converter rather than the approximate ranges, because leap-day adjustments in the BS system move individual dates slightly.

A common student and tourist query is “how many seasons are there in Nepal?” The traditional answer is six, not four. In the classical South Asian and Nepali framework each pair of consecutive months forms one ritu (season), giving six seasons across the year: Basanta (spring), Grishma (summer), Barsha (monsoon), Sharad (early autumn), Hemanta (late autumn / pre-winter) and Shishir (winter). This chha-ritu (six-season) scheme is inherited from the Vedic calendar and is still used in almanacs, agriculture and religious observances.

In everyday weather terms Nepal is often described with four broad seasons — spring, summer/monsoon, autumn and winter — which is why some tourism sites list four. Both are “correct”: four is a simplified meteorological grouping, while six is the traditional lunisolar-astronomical division. For cultural, religious and calendrical purposes, the six-ritu model is the authoritative one in Nepal.

The six ritu also carry strong cultural associations: Basanta with festivals of colour and the blossoming of rhododendron, Barsha with paddy planting and the monsoon, Sharad with the great festivals of Dashain and Tihar under clear skies, and Shishir with the cold, foggy Terai mornings. Understanding which BS months belong to which ritu makes it easier to read festival calendars and agricultural advisories.

Each of the six seasons covers two consecutive Bikram Sambat months, and therefore about two Gregorian months. In the most widely used Nepali convention, Basanta covers Chaitra and Baisakh, bridging the old and new year around mid-March to mid-May. Grishma follows with Jestha and Ashar (mid-May to mid-July), the hot pre-monsoon and early monsoon period.

Barsha, the monsoon, spans Shrawan and Bhadra (mid-July to mid-September), when most of Nepal's annual rainfall arrives. Sharad, the crisp early autumn of festivals and clear mountain views, covers Ashwin and Kartik (mid-September to mid-November). Hemanta, the cool pre-winter, runs through Mangsir and Poush (mid-November to mid-January), and Shishir, the cold heart of winter, covers Magh and Falgun (mid-January to mid-March).

One nuance worth noting: because the BS solar year opens with Baisakh, some tables pair Basanta with Baisakh–Jestha instead of Chaitra–Baisakh. The Chaitra–Baisakh pairing follows the classical ritu order (which begins the cycle in spring) and is the version used in most Nepali almanacs and school textbooks, so it is the mapping given below.

The Nepali week has seven days, and like most of South Asia it is conventionally treated as beginning on Sunday. The names derive from the Sanskrit names of the classical planets: Sunday (आइतबार, Aaitabar, from Aditya/Sun), Monday (सोमबार, Sombar, Moon), Tuesday (मंगलबार, Mangalbar, Mars), Wednesday (बुधबार, Budhbar, Mercury), Thursday (बिहीबार, Bihibar, Jupiter), Friday (शुक्रबार, Shukrabar, Venus) and Saturday (शनिबार, Sanibar, Saturn).

The suffix -bar (बार) simply means “day.” Saturday (Sanibar) is the official weekly public holiday in Nepal, and many offices also observe a half-day or full holiday on Saturday only, making Sunday a normal working day — a key difference from the Saturday–Sunday weekend used in much of the world. Schools and government offices publish their schedules against these day names.

When reading a Nepali patro (calendar), the weekday columns almost always run left to right from Aaitabar (Sunday) to Sanibar (Saturday). Knowing the romanised and English equivalents makes it straightforward to convert an appointment or festival date written only in Nepali.

Newcomers are often confused that a Nepali friend's “Saturday the 1st of Baisakh” does not repeat on the same English date each year. The reason is structural: the Bikram Sambat is a sidereal solar calendar, so month boundaries are set by the sun entering a new zodiac sign (sankranti), not by a fixed count of days. The exact instant of each sankranti drifts slightly year to year, so a month may gain or lose a day.

This is why authoritative Nepali calendars are computed and published annually by the Nepal Panchanga Nirnayak Samiti and reproduced by newspapers, app makers and government offices. The month-length tables that power BS–AD converters typically cover a fixed range — commonly BS 2000 to BS 2100 (AD 1943 to AD 2043) — anchored on the well-established equivalence that 1 Baisakh 2000 BS fell on 14 April 1943 AD.

For everyday use, the “mid-month to mid-month” rules in this hub are accurate enough to know which season and roughly which English dates a Nepali month covers. For legal deadlines, exam dates, visas or contracts, always confirm the precise Gregorian date with a verified converter or the official patro, since being off by even one day can matter.