Local Christians plan to celebrate in public and on the airwaves this coming Christmas, their first in a Nepal that is not officially a Hindu state.
They hope Dec. 25 will be listed as a holiday in the country's calendar by next year but plan to celebrate this year as if it were already official.
"This is a very special Christmas, as it is the first one in a new Nepal," confirms Father Silas Bogati, director of Caritas Nepal, the local Church's relief and development agency.
On May 18, the national parliament approved measures that converted Nepal into a secular state and stripped King Gyanendra Shah of most of his powers. Until then Nepal was the world's only Hindu state. On Nov. 22, the Nepali government and Maoist rebels signed a comprehensive peace treaty aimed at ending a 10-year insurgency that has claimed more than 14,000 lives.
Hindus account for about 60 percent of Nepal's 28 million people. According to the 2005-2006 Catholic Directory, Christians number approximately 1 million, about 7,500 of them Catholics.
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