Last May, Nepal’s Parliament transformed the country from an officially Hindu nation into a secular state.  Then, just a few weeks ago, the government signed a full peace agreement with Maoist rebels who had been conducting a bloody insurrection for ten years.  A new day has dawned for Nepalese Christians.

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.

Christians number about a million, 3.6% of the country’s 28 million people.

h/t: Big News Network.com – Breaking Religious News