KATMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Tooting horns and ringing chimes, hundreds of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transvestites paraded through Nepal’s capital Monday for a colorful celebration of Gaijatra, a Hindu festival to remember the dead that is gleefully overtaken each year by the country’s gay community.

In this socially conservative Hindu-majority nation, the festival was traditionally the only day people felt free to cross-dress. But social norms are changing fast as this fledgling Himalayan democracy emerges from centuries of religious monarchy.