KATHMANDU: Nepal is observing its holiest of festivals in a collective depression, with the kingdom’s economic and political crisis taking most of the joy out of the holiday season.

The Durga Puja, a 10-day carnival that celebrates the god Durga’s triumph over evil, is traditionally celebrated across the kingdom with salary advances, new clothes and feasts of goat meat.

But this year there is no money to advance and the fabrics and goats seem far too expensive.

Nepal has been in an economic slump since June 2001, when the king and nine other royals were shot dead at their palace by the drunken crown prince.

Tourism, the main foreign currency earner in Nepal other than remittances, has nosedived since the massacre which was followed by a surge in an insurgency by Maoist rebels. Tourist arrivals are this year about one-quarter down from normal levels.

Kathmandu hotels catering to tourists have been laying off staff and one luxury five-star has not paid out salaries for at least three months, according to a source at Nepal’s hotel association.

The Maoists, whose insurgency has claimed 5,000 lives in six and a half years, exercise de facto control in vast swathes of the kingdom, also hindering travel within Nepal.

On the 10th day of the festival, which falls on Thursday, the elderly traditionally bless their families by pressing tikas on the younger members’ foreheads.

The ritual is played out on a national scale in Kathmandu, where Narayanhiti Palace opens up and the king blesses thousands of well-wishers.

Unlike many counterparts in the private sector, some 120,000 civil servants, soldiers and police have been given their traditional one month salary advances for the festival.

The government, hit by the economic crunch, has had to sell development bonds and treasury bills to make ends meet, said Pushpa Hari Sapkota of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

In a sign of the new austerity, this year there are fewer goats in Kathmandu waiting to be sacrificed for the festival’s feast. (Nepal’s numerous vegetarians substitute goats with coconuts.)—AFP