By: Manmeet Kaur Tura

Karva Chauth is a festival of love and belief. It is a one-day festival celebrated in the month of Kartika. This year the festival of Karwa Chauth will be celebrated on 27th October. It is a festival that is celebrated by married couples and falls on the fourth day of the waning moon after purnima (full moon). The position of moon is used to calculate the tithi, according to the Hindu Panchang calendar.

The rituals of the festival include the fasting of married women from sunrise to moonrise for the long life of their husbands. This is a tradition of Northern India. The fast is customarily celebrated in the states of Rajasthan, parts of Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab and as Atla Tadde in Andhra Pradesh. The festival falls on the fourth day after the full moon, in the month of Kartik. Sometimes, unmarried women also fast on this day for their fiancés or desired husbands.

Karva means 'pot' (a small earthen pot of water) and chauth means 'fourth' in Hindi (in reference to the fact that the festival occurs on the fourth day of the dark-fortnight, or krishna paksh, of the Kartik month). The festival originated in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent and is celebrated only in these regions.

One theory is that the men of the family mostly went to military campaigns in far off places leaving their wives and children behind to go off to war. Their wives would pray for their safe return. The festival also happens to be at the wheat-sowing time i.e. the beginning of the Rabi crop cycle in northern India. Big earthen pots with wheat stored in it are sometimes called Karvas, so the fast is supposed to have begun as a prayer for a good harvest in this principally wheat-eating region.

Prayer Rituals

The rituals include the married women buying new karvas (spherical clay pots), a few days before Karva Chauth. They paint them on the outside with beautiful designs. Inside the karva, bangles and home-made sweets are placed.

Early Morning rituals - The day begins with the married women waking up before sunrise i.e. at 4:00 am and having her meal. The meal includes food items cooked and arranged by the bride’s mother in law. Eating after sunrise is strictly prohibited. In Punjab sargi is a very important part of the pre sunrise meal. Sargi is given to the fasting women by her mother in law. It includes feni, dry fruits, fruits along with new clothes and traditional make up. Henna is applied a day before or in the early morning hours before beginning the fast.

The fast begins at dawn. Fasting women do not eat during the day. Some women neither eat, nor drink water the whole day. This is called the Nirjala Vrat. Women specifically apply henna and vermillion on this day.  

During the evening hours the women would then go to a temple or arrange a gathering at a house to meet each other and sing prayers. They dress up in the complete finery of their wedding dresses.  All the women sit in a circle and exchange their karvas while singing prayers. The karvas are handed from one woman to another in the circular sitting arrangement. By the end of the prayer the karva must reach the owner. During this ritual the katha is read out to all the women. It is the story of Sati and how she saved the life of her husband. The story may differ in every region.  These prayers are enchantments seeking long life for their husbands.

In the evening the fast is broken only after seeing the moon. Generally it arrives later than it does on the normal days. The women then drinks water which is given to her by her husband only. This marks the completion of her fast.

The rituals are slightly different in different parts of the northern India but this festival is a festival of trust and love for a couple.


KARWA CHAUTH POOJA MUHURAT 2018

Karwa Chauth Muhurat is the duration within which puja can be performed. The entire duration for Karwa Chauth Pooja on 28th of October is 1 hour and 18 mins.

Karwa Chauth puja would start at 5.36 PM.
Karwa Chauth puja would end at: 6:54 PM.

The moonrise timing will be 8:30 pm. Karwa Chauth will be considered complete only when a woman sees a rising full moon through a chalani with a lighting ghee diya placed alongside, gives Arghya(offer holy water)  to moon, and drinks water from the hands of her husband.