Vijaya Dashami Today in Nepal: Tika at 10:26 AM, Shah Urges Unity

Vijaya Dashami, the main tika day of Bada Dashain, falls today, Wednesday, Oct 21, 2026. The date is Kartik 4, 2083 BS in the Nepali calendar. The Nepal Panchanga Nirnayak committee set the auspicious time for tika, known as the sait, at 10:26 AM Nepal time. For families at home and for Nepalis living abroad, that time was the center of the morning.

The day began with a separate ritual time. The ceremonial farewell to Goddess Durga was set for 8:49 AM. After that, households prepared plates of tika and jamara and waited for the sait. At 10:26 AM, elders began placing tika on the foreheads of younger family members, one household at a time.

How tika is given

The direction matters, and families follow it with care. The person giving tika faces east. The person receiving tika faces west. Elders mix red tika and place it on the forehead. They also give yellow jamara, the barley shoots grown since the start of the festival.

The act carries a blessing. Younger members bow to elders and receive words of good health, long life and success. In many homes, elders also give money and food, and relatives who live nearby visit through the day. The ritual is simple, but it holds the structure of the festival. It links children to parents, grandparents and the wider family in one room.

Anyone who missed the 10:26 AM sait has not missed the festival. Tika can be received through Kojagrat Purnima, the full moon that ends the 15 day festival. That point matters for people who work today, for people who travel, and for families whose elders live in another town. The doors stay open for days, not minutes.

Shah message calls for unity

Prime Minister Balendra Shah used his Dashain message to talk about the country as a whole. He said the festival binds the diverse society of Nepal together. He said it brings together people from all walks of life, communities and regions.

Shah also named problems he wants the country to face together. He called for collective efforts to root out corruption, poor governance, bureaucratic delays, inequality and political disorder. Radio Nepal, citing RSS, reported his words directly.

"We must unite to eliminate these ills and ensure that every citizen feels that the government is there for them."

He urged people to rise above ego, greed, jealousy, violence and discrimination. He asked people to celebrate according to their means. The message joined a religious greeting to a clear political point. On the biggest family day of the year, the prime minister asked citizens to think about fairness, service and how the state treats ordinary people.

A festival shared with visitors

The celebration reached beyond Nepali homes. Foreign tourists received tika and jamara at a hotel in Thamel, Kathmandu, according to NTV World, citing RSS. Thamel is the main tourist district of the capital, and hotels there often mark major festivals with guests.

The scene in Thamel showed another side of Dashain. For visitors, tika is a welcome. For hosts, it is a way to share a tradition without a long explanation. A red mark on the forehead and a sprig of yellow jamara say what words often cannot. The guest is included, at least for a day, in the family logic of the festival.

Travel and the days ahead

This site reported on Oct 20 that more than 576,000 people left the Kathmandu Valley for Dashain. That movement explains both the quiet streets in parts of the capital and the busy homes in villages and towns across the country. People return to their family homes for tika, even when work keeps them in the valley for the rest of the year.

Return travel is now the next practical beat. In the coming days, the same families will head back to Kathmandu for work and school. Bus routes and highways will fill again. For now, though, the focus stays at home, on visits between relatives and on tika rounds that continue well past today.

For readers in the diaspora, the key facts are simple. The sait was 10:26 AM Nepal time on Wednesday, Oct 21. The giver faces east and the receiver faces west. Tika and jamara continue through Kojagrat Purnima. A family that could not meet this morning can still meet tomorrow, or the day after, and keep the rite in full.

Bada Dashain began on Oct 11 with Ghatasthapana, when households planted the jamara. Phulpati followed on Oct 17, with its procession. Today brought the peak of the festival, the moment the jamara planted at the start is finally given, with tika, to the people it was grown for.