Dates and seasons Nepali style

Namaste!
Nepal works on the Hindu Lunar calendar, a completely different calendar to the Gregorian one that is used in Europe.
At the time of writing it is 24th November 2013, but in Nepal it is 7th day of Mangsir 2070. This calendar is called the 'Bikram Sambat' which, when writing, is abbreviated to B.S. It is named after King Bikramaditya of Ujjyan, who introduced the present era in the Gregorian year of 56-57 B.C. However, this Nepali date can be converted into the corresponding Christian year by subtracting 56 years and 8 and half months. Easy!!

There are seven days in the week; aaitabaar, sombaar, mangelbaar, budhabaar, bihibaar, sukrabaar, sanibaar (Sunday to Saturday). Sunday is a working day and is the first day of the week for schools and businesses, which seems strange to us, especially as VSO work on a Monday to Friday week. Christian churches in Nepal often hold their services on Saturdays rather than Sundays so that their congregations can attend.

There are still 12 months in each year, however there is not of a fixed number of days in each month, and the number varies from year to year according to the phases of the moon. There can be up to 32 days in a month. So, each year is different and Nepalis have to rely on their printed diaries or calendars to know how the  months go.

The Nepali new year starts on 14th or 15th April with the month of 'baisaakh'. Each month in the Nepali calendar goes from the middle of one of our months through to the middle of the next month. For example 'baisaakh' goes from mid April to mid May in our calendar. Then comes 'jeTh' from mid May to mid June, and so on.
(Ed: No, it's not grammatical error, Nepalis do not use capital letters for names of days or months! Watch out for a future blog page about the Nepali language, once I'm more confident about using it.) 

I am sure this system will be problematic when I am arranging dates for visits to schools and appointments to speak to the District Education Officer, so I need to learn to adapt to this different calendar. Fortunately most calendars and diaries available in Nepal are printed with both dates, unfortunately the Nepali part is in Nepali script which I cannot read!  I can now read the Nepali numbers so that is a start!

Seasons in Nepal are another matter! Officially there are 6 seasons, basanta (Spring), grishma (Summer), barsha (monsoon, rain), sharad (Autumn), hemant (winter) and shirshir (early Spring). However this is now considered old fashioned and these names are no longer used very much.  Instead the Nepali people have adopted a three season year;

• jaaDo mahinaa  - (literally) cold months
• garmi mahinaa -  (literally) hot months
• paani parne mahinaa - (literally) rainy months.

This seems to be much simpler and fits the weather and temperature changes in the Nepali year.

Nepal is now going into jaarDo mahinaa, so everyone is wrapping up in coats and shawls.

Pheri bheTaulaa.