Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Karva Chauth (Fasting)




Today here in North India is a day which is celebrated by the women. The women fast for their husbands and pray for their long and good life. The roads are all filled with women buying religious articles for the prayers and worship. It is a very interesting celebration. 
Karwa is another word for pot (a small earthen pot of water) and chauth means 'fourth' in Hindi (a reference to the fact that the festival falls on the fourth day of the dark-fortnight, or krishna paksh, of the month of Kartik).[8]
It is uncertain how the festival originated and how it came to be celebrated only in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent. One hypothesis is that military campaigns and long-distance travel usually resumed around the time of the festival, as the area dried and numerous rivers of the region (see Sapta Sindhu) subsided from the effects of the monsoon.[9] Women observed the fast to pray for the safety of their husbands at this time as they ventured away from home. The festival coincides with the wheat-sowing time (i.e., the beginning of the Rabi crop cycle). Big earthen pots in which wheat is stored are sometimes called karwas, so the fast may have begun as a prayer for a good harvest in this predominantly wheat-eating region.[9]

Rituals[edit]

Women begin preparing for Karwa Chauth a few days in advance, by buying cosmetics (shringar), traditional adornments or jewelry, and puja items, such as the karwa lamps, matthi,henna and the decorated puja thali (plate).[10] Local bazaars take on a festive look as shopkeepers put their Karwa Chauth related products on display.[10] On the day of the fast, women from Punjab awake to eat and drink just before sunrise. In Uttar Pradesh, celebrants eat soot feni with milk in sugar on the eve of the festival. It is said that this helps them go without water the next day. In Punjab, sargi (ਸਰਗੀ) is an important part of this pre-dawn meal and always includes fenia. It is traditional for the sargi to be sent or given to the woman by her mother-in-law. If the mother-in-law lives with the woman, the pre-dawn meal is prepared by the mother-in-law.
The fast begins with dawn. Fasting women do not eat during the day, and some do not drink any water either. In traditional observances of the fast, the fasting woman does no housework.[11] Women apply henna and other cosmetics to themselves and each other. The day passes in meeting friends and relatives. In some regions, it is customary to give and exchange painted clay pots filled with put bangles, ribbons, home-made candy, cosmetics and small cloth items (e.g., handkerchiefs). Since Karwa Chauth follows soon after theKharif crop harvest in the rural areas, it is a good time for community festivities and gift exchanges. Parents often send gifts to their married daughters and their children.
In the evening, a community women-only ceremony is held. Participants dress in fine clothing and wear jewellery and henna, and (in some regions) dress in the complete finery of their wedding dresses.[12] The dresses (saris or shalwars) are frequently red, gold or orange, which are considered auspicious colors.[13] In Uttar Pradesh, women wear saris orlehangas. The fasters sit in a circle with their puja thalis. Depending on region and community, a version of the story of Karwa Chauth is narrated, with regular pauses. The storyteller is usually an older woman or a priest, if one is present.[14] In the pauses, the Karwa Chauth puja song is sung collectively the singers perform the feris (passing their thalis around in the circle).
Taken from Wikipedia

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