More festive holidays

Governments come and governments go, but holidays, it seems, remain forever.The Ministry of Home Affairs published a new holiday calendar for the year 2072 BS in Gazette on Monday, giving continuity to tradition amid calls to readjust the number of public holidays. This Nepali year will have more festive holidays than the previous years, according to the ministry.

According to the new calendar, the year 2072 BS has 80 public holidays, including 23 festive holidays, 10 days of Dashain and Tihar celebrations, three no-work days for women, one no-study day for students, four holidays specific to the Kathmandu valley, three holidays for Hindus and Buddhists, 18 for Nepali missions abroad and seven days-off marking various other occasions. Six public holidays fall on weekends, Saturday. Otherwise, the total number of holidays would reach 86. The year has 52 weekends.

Dashain and Tihar, two biggest festivals of Hindus, fall in the month of Kartik.

After the political transition of 2006, Nepal has seen an ever-increasing number of holidays, creating difficulties for both the government and service seekers. As demanded by various religious and ethnic communities, the number of public holidays for festive occasions has increased significantly.

Given the number of holidays, many hold a Home Affairs Ministry panel, tasked with addressing the prevalence of work-free days, responsible. “The panel was instructed to bring down government holidays to 10 and make festive holidays optional. Holidays for various religious and ethnic occasions were asked to be made optional so as not to affect service seekers. The idea failed,” said a secretary at the Prime Minister’s Office.

As notified, public offices in Jhapa, Morang, Sunsari, Siraha and Saptari will mark a holiday for Siruwa Pawani. The festival of Dhava Thampu, which the ministry itself knows little about, has also been made a public holiday. Women will receive three days off for Teej, Rishi Panchami and Tejeya (in particular regions), while educational institutions will get an additional holiday on Basanta Panchami or Saraswati Puja. Residents of Kathmandu Valley are given four extra holidays for Indra Jatra, Machhindranath Jatra, Ghode Jatra and Gai Jatra.

For the Dashain festival, including Ghatasthapana and Kojagrat Purnima, eight days have been declared public holidays while for Tihar, three days have been allocated as usual.

Loktantra Day has also been declared a public holiday. Other holidays include May Day, Republic Day, Civil Servants’ Day (for government employees), International Disabled Day (for the disabled), Martyrs’ Day, Democracy Day, Buddha Jayanti, Sri Krishna Janmasthami and Ram Nawami.

source: the kathmandu post,3 March 2015