Karwa Chauth

Karwa Chauth is a very well known festival celebrated by Hindu women from North-West India and some parts of Central India in the month of Kartika.

On Karwa Chauth, married women, observe fast from sunrise to sunset for the safety and long life of their husbands.

Even Karwa Chauth is seen as an event that bonds women together as it is celebrated mainly by women and dressing-up is the most important part of it.

On that day, fasting women woke up early to have sargi just before sunrise, as it is an important part of karwa chauth. Sargi is usually sent or given to the fasting women by their mother-in-law.

In the evening, fasting women dress in auspicious colors such as red, orange, or gold saree or salwar with nice heavy jewelry, applies henna and a community women-only ceremony is held.

Then the fasting women sit in a circle with their puja thalis and the story of Karwa Chauth is narrated, with regular pauses by an older woman or a priest. The Karwa Chauth puja song is sung in the pauses and the women perform the pheris bypassing their thalis around in the circle.

Thereafter, the fasting women offer bayana, which is a melange of goodies like halwa, puri, namkeen-mathri, meethi-mathri, etc. to the idols and then hand over it to their mother-in-law or sister-in-law.

Once the moon sighted and ends the waiting, fasting women, view the moon or its reflection in a vessel filled with water, through a sieve, or through the cloth of a dupatta, offer water to the moon to secure its blessings and say a brief prayer asking for their husband’s long life.

Their husbands then offer water to their wives to break the fast, after which the women can have a complete meal.

Nowadays in modern society, Karwa Chauth is considered to be a romantic festival, symbolizing the love between a husband and wife.

In popular Bollywood movies like Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge and Baghban, the two different romantic karwa chauth festival scenes still touch our hearts.

Even the top most famous Bollywood celebrities like Shilpa Shetty, Raveena Tandon, Anushka Sharma, Priyanka Chopra, Bipasha Basu and many more celebrates karwa chauth very grandly with their family and friends.

Thanks to the Bollywood Film Industry for making Karwa Chauth this much famous that it isn’t limited to be a North Indian festival anymore. It is now a glamorized and widely popular festival of love in India.