Ask a Nepali in Doha, Sydney or a rented room in Kathmandu what they miss most about Dashain at home, and the answer is rarely just the tika or the meat. It's the games. The creak of a bamboo ping in the evening. Someone shouting "chait!" from the next rooftop as a kite line snaps. Three decks of cards being shuffled on a straw mat while the elders argue over whose turn it is.
Dashain 2026 began with Ghatasthapana on Sunday, 11 October, and Vijaya Dashami falls on Wednesday, 21 October. As millions of us head home before Fulpati, here is a look at the three games that make the festival feel like Dashain: where they come from, why they are fading, and how to keep them going.
Ping: The One Time a Year Nepal Leaves the Ground
How a Linge Ping Is Built
If Dashain has a skyline, it's the linge ping. Four tall bamboo poles are planted in the ground and tied together at the top, with a thick rope hanging down to a small wooden seat. No bolts, no metal, yet in the right hands it sends a rider far higher than looks sensible.
The name comes from its shape, which resembles a Shiva linga. The belief behind it is simple: everyone should leave the ground at least once a year, and Dashain is the time to do it. Some elders say it shakes off the year's bad luck; others say it keeps you young.
Building one is half the fun. Young people pick the straightest bamboo, dig the holes, haul the poles up and test the rope while half the neighbourhood shouts advice. Kids ride sitting down and get pushed; the brave ones stand and pump until the rope is nearly level with the ground. As one villager in Dhankuta told a local paper, a ping is not something you can build on your own.
Its cousin, the rote ping, is a hand-turned wooden Ferris wheel with four seats that still appears at village melas.
Where You Can Still Find One
The ping gets harder to find every year. Neighbourhoods in Biratnagar and Jhapa went years without one after Covid, and people give the same reasons everywhere: the young people who built them are working abroad, open land is disappearing, and children would rather be on a phone. The Kathmandu Post's archive of old Dashain photos includes a picture of two women on a ping in Taplejung in 1967, and it looks like a different country.
But it hasn't gone. Last Dashain, pings went up at Bhairav Chaur in Gokarneshwar on the edge of Kathmandu, in parts of Bhaktapur, and in hill villages like Sirandanda in Gorkha, where The Annapurna Express photographed children on the swings. If you want a ride this year, ask around in your village before Fulpati. Somebody always knows where the ping is going up.
Changa: A Message to the Rain God
Why Kites Fill the Sky at Dashain
Kite flying at Dashain isn't random. In the Kathmandu Valley, the old belief is that kites carry a message to Indra, the god of rain, telling him the fields have had enough water and the monsoon can stop. That's why farmers traditionally scolded anyone who flew a kite before the rice was planted. By Dashain the harvest is close and the sky belongs to the kites.
According to The Kathmandu Post's feature on the history of kite flying, the season in the valley was traditionally said to begin as early as Nag Panchami, but it peaks around Dashain, which is the version most of us grew up with.
Latai, Manja and the Art of "Chait!"
A Nepali changa is simple: a square of thin paper on a bamboo frame, flown without a tail. The real equipment is the latai, the wooden spool, and the manja, the line itself, coated with a paste that includes crushed glass. That's because Nepali kite flying is about the fight. You steer your kite until your line crosses someone else's, then pull hard and hope theirs snaps first. When it does, the whole rooftop shouts "chait!" and some kid downstairs is already running after the falling kite.
Back in 2018, The Himalayan Times reported that kite flying had dropped by more than 70 percent as phones took over. The Dashain sky over Kathmandu is still busy on a clear afternoon, but it's nothing like it was.
Fly Safe This Year
- Watch the rooftop edge. Many roofs have no railings. Keep children back.
- Stay clear of power lines. Never try to free a kite tangled in wires.
- Respect the manja. Glass-coated line cuts fingers, and loose line across a road is dangerous for motorcyclists. Wind it in when you finish.
Taas: Family Card Games, Not Juwa
Peanuts, Pride and No Money on the Mat
Let's be clear first: the taas we mean is the family kind, played for laughs, peanuts and bragging rights. Once money goes on the mat it becomes juwa, which is illegal in Nepal, and police step up checks against it every festival season. The Record's reporting on festival gambling shows how quickly that line gets crossed, and what it costs families when it does.
If the ping belongs to the kids and the kites to the teenagers, the cards belong to everyone. Once tika is done and the meal is over, somebody finds a deck, a mat goes down on the floor, and grandparents, cousins and in-laws finally sit in one circle.
The Games Everyone Plays
Marriage is the undisputed favourite. It's Nepal's own rummy-style game, played with three full decks and 21 cards each, where you race to build sequences and sets. The family joke is that you only learn the rules properly after you're married. Kitti is quicker: nine cards, arranged into three strong hands of three. Call Break, a trick-taking game with spades as trumps, is what the cousins play once the uncles have taken over the Marriage game. Dhumbal is simple enough for everyone to join, and the youngest kids increasingly bring UNO instead.
Kojagrat: The Night Nobody Sleeps
On Kojagrat Purnima, the last night of Dashain, which falls on Sunday, 25 October this year, the goddess Laxmi is said to wander the earth asking "Ko jagrat?", meaning "Who is awake?", and to bless those she finds awake. Staying up late became the tradition, and a family card game, alongside bhajan and stories, became one of the easiest ways to keep everyone awake.
Why These Games Only Really Happen at Home
The ping needs open ground and a village's worth of hands. The kite needs a wide sky and friendly rooftops. The taas needs a floor full of relatives who haven't sat together since last year. None of that fits in a rented city flat or a workers' dorm abroad.
That's why Dashain has always been about the journey home, and why the buses leaving Kathmandu before Fulpati are so full. This year advance booking opened on 9 October, after late-September rain had closed the highways out of the valley for several days, and people queued at the New Bus Park from the night before. If you haven't booked yet, our Dashain 2083 advance bus booking guide has the new rules, and the Dashain bus rush guide explains which routes fill up first.
A Small Checklist for Bringing the Games Back
- Pack three decks of cards, and leave the wallet in the bag. Marriage needs all three decks, and peanuts make better stakes.
- Offer to help build the ping. Turn up with a sickle and some rope. That's how the tradition survives.
- Teach the kids. Show a nephew how to wind a latai, or a niece how to play Dhumbal.
- Put the phone down for one evening. Take the photos, then actually play.
And when Dashain is done, the games don't have to stop. Tihar brings Deusi, Bhailo and one more round of cards, and if you have a few free days in between, our list of short trips between Dashain and Tihar has ideas.
Explore Nepal with GoMyGo
Every one of these games starts with getting home, and for millions of Nepalis that means a long road to the hills, the Tarai or the far west. A confirmed seat is the first step towards a turn on the ping.
You can compare routes, coach types and live seat availability on the GoMyGo website, or get the app from the GoMyGo app download page, and book your journey home, and back again, in a few minutes.
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Final Words
We don't miss Dashain for the rituals alone. We miss it for the moment the ping lifts you into open sky, the silence just before someone yells "chait!", and the uncle who swears every year he's quitting Marriage after one more round. These games are fading, but they survive as long as people keep going home to play them. So this year, go home early, find the ping, fly a kite and lose gracefully at cards. Shubha Vijaya Dashami.
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GoMyGo Team
The GoMyGo team covers Nepal travel, bus routes, booking tips, and everything you need for a smoother journey.