Within the Bon tradition, the sacred year is structured around a lunar ritual calendar that interweaves communal celebration, personal practice, and veneration of founding figures and deities. New Year (Losar) holds a central place, marked by purification rites, offerings, exorcistic rituals to clear away the negativities of the old year, and the invocation of protective deities. These days are often filled with smoke offerings, ransom rituals, and communal gatherings that reaffirm both spiritual and social bonds. Year‑end purification practices, including the making of dough effigies to carry away misfortune and large fire or smoke offerings, deepen this emphasis on cleansing and protection.

A distinctive feature of Bon observance is the cycle of festivals dedicated to Tonpa Shenrab Miwoche, regarded as the founding Buddha of the tradition. His birth, enlightenment, and parinirvāṇa are commemorated on specific lunar dates, often in the early and middle months of the year. These days are marked by festive rituals, prayers for longevity and prosperity, intensive mantra recitation, meditation, and more solemn ceremonies of confession and offering to the teacher lineage. In this way, the life of Tonpa Shenrab becomes a template for both devotion and contemplative practice.

Throughout the year, Bon communities also observe numerous days devoted to protectors, local deities, and the natural environment. Mountain‑god and land‑spirit festivals, as well as local agricultural and seasonal celebrations, involve offerings to mountain and water deities, smoke rituals, ransom rites, and prayers for harmony in weather, health, and harvest. These occasions often resemble village deity festivals found elsewhere in Tibet, yet they are framed explicitly within Bon cosmology and frequently include games, horse races, and communal feasting under the guidance of Bon priests. Such observances reveal how spiritual practice is woven into the rhythms of land and livelihood.

Monasteries and lineages maintain their own cycles of holy days that further enrich the Bon calendar. Important dates include commemorations of the founding of major monasteries, as well as the birth and death anniversaries of renowned Bon masters. These are marked by extensive prayers, teachings, communal meals, and often multi‑day ritual intensives (drubchen‑like practices) focused on central deities such as Shenlha Ökar, Sipé Gyalmo, and others. Full and new moon days, along with other especially auspicious lunar dates, are treated as powerful occasions for accumulating merit through recitation, generosity, fasting, and vows. In all of this, the Bon calendar functions not merely as a schedule of festivals, but as a carefully patterned path of purification, protection, and awakening.