The Bhaktapur district of Kathmandu Valley started early celebrations to welcome the Nepali New Year with music and festivities. April 14 is Baisakh 1 as per the Nepali calendar for the year 2083 as per Bikram Sambat and is a national holiday in Nepal to mark the arrival of new year. Citizens of Bhaktapur celebrate the arrival of the new year by organising a nine-day-long Bisket Jatra.

 

Newar community people perform dance in their traditional attire on traditional music to dhime, madal, jhaal, damphu, turahi and panche baaja. In the jatra, a three-storey chariot made of wood in the pagoda style, carries a statue of lord bhairav. As part of the festival, the chariot is pushed and pulled by two groups of locals, around the human settlements through different streets and localities with the statues of Bhairavnath and Betal. Bisket Jatra had started during the Malla Dynasty, which formally starts four days before the beginning of the Nepali New Year.