With the beginning of Bada Dashain, the most widely celebrated Hindu festival in the country, from Thursday, people from outside the Kathmandu Valley are heading home to their villages.

Ghatasthapana, which marks the start of the 10-day Dashain festival, is being observed across the country on Thursday. This is when people start to leave the Valley in droves for their hometowns.

The Dashain travel rush is considered to be the largest annual migration in Nepal. However, the usual outbound traffic during Dashain has decreased since the pandemic hit about a year and a half ago.

A few weeks ago, transport entrepreneurs had shown reluctance to open pre-booking for Dashain citing that the number of people leaving the Valley this year would be low.

Last year, the government allowed the operation of long-route vehicles from September 15 after lifting the nationwide lockdown that started on March 24. However, the number of people leaving the city was significantly low compared to the pre-pandemic period.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic hit the country, the number of people traveling for Dashain exceeded 3 million.

Here are some photos of people boarding their buses from Gongabu Bus Park to head towards their hometowns for Dashain captured by Post’s photographer Kabin Adhikari.