BRIGHT bursts of colour and aromatic smells filled the Punjabi Community Centre in Pinehurst on Saturday night as Wiltshire’s Nepalese community gathered to celebrate their new year – 2074.

The annual celebration saw around 400 people attend, many of them in national dress, to enjoy food as well as displays of traditional dance.

The evening was organised by the Nepalese Association of Wiltshire (NAW) as a way of bringing families together from around the county.

President Maita Kumar Limbu said he was happy that families were able to come out to celebrate the important occasion.

“It is nice for the community to get together," he said.

“Although we are known as Nepalese, we all have our own identities and our own different dialects and so it is nice to come together and to celebrate as one. We have a big diversity within our own people as well as cultures so it is lovely for people to celebrate New Year with a big party.

“We help each other out with various issues and different languages so that we can integrate people here and that is one of our focuses.

“Our other aim is to keep our culture and identities alive among younger people who are brought up coming to these events. It is passing down the traditions and legacies from our generation to them.”

The Vikram Samvat calendar, which starts in April and has been used officially in Nepal since 1958, is a solar calendar, putting it 57 years ahead of the Gregorian Calendar used in the UK.

As well as a display of dance, well-wishers to the event were able to tuck into some gastronomic delights including traditional Nepali dishes such as Gurkha curry and stir fried goat meat.

The association, which was formed in 2006, provides a range of events and services for its members who are mainly ex-Gurkhas.

Among those who attended included mayor Eric Shaw and Jumbahadur Gurung, who is also a member of NAW, said he was thrilled that the distinguished guests were able to learn more about Nepali culture, including the struggles ex-Gurkhas faced in getting settlement status in the UK.

He added: “We were not able to settle in the UK before 2009 so that is why we, as a community, are happy to integrate into the big society and move with the times.

“We put on these cultural programmes because we do not want to lose the generation gap but instead bring them together.”