The Nepali Calendar is a traditional lunar calendar used in Nepal for cultural and religious purposes. Known as the Bikram Sambat Calendar, it is based on the Hindu calendar system and serves as the official calendar of Nepal. The Nepali Calendar consists of 12 months, each with a varying number of days, changing from year to year, and ranging from 29 days to 32 days.
One of the unique features of the Nepali Calendar is that it is 56 years and 8½ months ahead of the Gregorian calendar. The Nepali Calendar follows a detailed Nepali panchang to list important festivals like Dashain, Tihar, Teej, Chhath, Lhosar, and Eid. It brings you the Daily Panchang of Nepal, Government and Bank holidays, Nepali festivals and more.
Additionally, the Nepali Calendar includes cultural celebrations of different diversities in Nepal’s ethnic, tribal, and social groups, making it an invaluable tool for the Nepalese community both in Nepal and abroad.
What is Nepali Calendar?
Nepali Calendar is the multicultural calendar with Events and Festivals of all the cultural ethnic groups of Nepali around the World.
Nepali Calendar also known as Nepali Patro is the Bikram Sambat system which uses lunar months and solar sidereal year. The Nepalese new year falls on 1st Baishakh (mid of April). The months have a minimum of 28 (usually Mangshir/Poush) days and a maximum of 32 (usually Asar/Shrawan) days. Besides Nepal and India, Bikram Sambat Nepali Calendar is also used in other countries like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.
More on Nepali Calendar
King Chandragupta Vikramaditya, who was the Hindu king of Ujjain (currently in Rajasthan, India), started a new calendar and gave it his own name, Vikram. 'Sambat', which means 'era' in English, is used for any calendar system in Sanskrit. Thus, the calendar was named Vikram Sambat. With the development of the relationship between Vikramaditya and the Lichchhavi kings of Nepal through marriage, the calendar system was introduced to Nepal. Since then, it was used in Nepal by subsequent generations of kings for various purposes until it was replaced by Sakha Sambat during the Rana regime. However, the Ranas restored the Vikram Sambat Calendar in 1958, and since then, it has been used and known as the official Nepali Calendar.
It is also believed that around 58 BC, when the Vikram Sambat Calendar was started, there was no existence of King Chandragupta Vikramaditya in India. Therefore, the calendar may have been started and solely developed by the Lichchhavi kings of Nepal. This suggests that it was Mandev, the then king of Nepal, who started the Nepali Calendar.
We have also created a brand new Nepali Calendar exclusively for iOS user called Smart Patro with much simplicity using latest development technology to make it much faster and user friendly, which includes the features like Calendar, Date Converter, Rashifal, Forex / Exchange Rate, Gold & Silver, Nepali News, Nepali FM Radio, Panchang and many more. You can download Smart Patro - Nepali Calendar from App Store.