What is Karwa Chauth? This is an Indian festival that is celebrated by women who pray for good husbands and a bettter society. Mainly celebrated by the Northern Indian states of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and kashmir, Haryana, etc, this is a festival that falls during the Indian month of Kartik on the fourth day.
Karwa means pot and Chauth means fourth. As the festival comes on the darker night of Krishna Paksha of the fourth day of this month, it gets its name. In earlier times, men used to go out for battle for long duration. Women used to pray for their longevity by fasting for them.
- karva chouth (Photo credit: Alankar)
This tradition gradually began to be celebrated by both married and unmarried women symbolically for a good husband with long life. Thus the festival of Karwa Chauth got its origins. Today the women get ready much in advance and splurge on buying finery, jewellery and cosmetics.They paint their hands with mehendi or henna and wear bangles and dress themselves up well. Sargi is a food packet that is gifted by the mother in law for the girl.
- Bangles! (Photo credit: Kashif Haque)
They get up early in the morning and have food before sunrise. Then they fast the entire day and break their fast after seeing the moon. The women see the moon through a sieve and wait for their husbands to feed them a sip of water thus signifying breaking the fast.
Karwa Chauth also means a celebration of harvest time when the harvested wheat is kept in a karwa or an earthern pot and women pray for better harvest every year.
With prayers for a prosperous society, such festivals like Karwa Chauth in India are what make it a unique and special hub of tradition and culture.
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