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OPENING HOURS AND
HOLIDAYS |
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Shops in Nepal keep long hours, and in tourist areas usually stay
open seven days a week. But when dealing with officialdom remember that
Saturday, not Sunday, is the day of rest - and bureaucrats like to knock
off early on Friday, too.
In theory, government offices and post offices are open Sun-Thurs
10am-5pm, Fri 10am-3pm; in winter (mid-Nov to mid-Feb), the Sun-Thurs
closing time is 4pm. These schedules often get truncated at either end,
though. Most museums keep roughly the same hours, except some close on
Tuesdays instead of Saturdays.
Moneychangers and some banks in tourist areas are generous with their
hours, but elsewhere you'll have to do your transactions between 10am
and 2pm Sun-Thurs, 10am-noon on Fri. Travel agents tend to work a five-day
week, 9 or 10am to 6pm, Mon-Fri; airline offices are the same but they
take a lunch break at 1-2pm. Embassy and consulate hours are all over
the place.
Complicating matters is Nepal's hectic calendar of festivals and
holidays , which can shut down offices for up to a week at a time. Dates
vary from year to year - Nepal has its own calendar, beginning in mid-April
and consisting of twelve months that are completely out of step with the
Western ones. (The Vikram Sambat calendar began in 57 BC. Thus the
Nepali year that begun in April 2001 is 2058 VS.) Religious festivals,
meanwhile, are calculated according to the lunar calendar. Tibetan
festivals follow yet a different calendar.
National holidays
Prithvi Narayan Shah's Birthday - January 10 or 11.
Basanta Panchami - late January or early February.
Shiva Raatri - late February or early March.
Democracy Day - February 18 or 19.
Nawa Barsa (Nepali New Year) - April 13 or 14.
Guru Purnima - late June or early July.
Janai Purnima - late July or early August.
Dasain - late September or early October (3-6 days).
Tihaar - late October or early November (3 days).
Queen's Birthday - November 7 or 8.
Constitution Day - December 15 or 16.
King's Birthday - December 28 or 29
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