Karva Chauth
Karva Chauth or Karwa Chauth or Karaka Chaturthi is a Hindu festival celebrated by Hindu women of Nepal, Northern India and Western India in October or November on the Bikram Sambat month of Kartika. Like many Hindu festivals, Karva Chauth is based on a lunisolar variant of the Hindu Calendars. The festival falls on the fourth day after the full moon.
On Karva Chauth women observe a fast from sunrise to moonrise for the safety and longevity of their husbands. The Karva Chauth fast is traditionally celebrated in Nepal and the states of Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Punjab, Jammu, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Fiji. It is celebrated as Atla Tadde in Andhra Pradesh.
Origins
Karva is another word for 'pot' and chauth means 'fourth' in Hindi. In Sanskrit scriptures, the festival is referred to as Karaka Chaturthi, karaka meaning an earthen water pitcher and chaturthi denoting the fourth day of the lunar Hindu month.Karva Chauth is mostly celebrated in Northern India. Military campaigns were often conducted by Rajput men in far off places whereby Rajput men would leave their wives and children at home to go off to the war. Their wives would often pray for their safe return. The festival also coincides with the wheat-sowing time. Big earthen pots in which wheat is stored are sometimes called karvas, so the fast may have begun as a prayer for a good harvest in this predominantly wheat-eating Northwestern region.
Another story about the origin of this festival relates to the bond of feminine friendship. With the custom of arranged marriage being prevalent, the newlywed is supposed to reside with her husband and in-laws. Being new to the family, the custom arose of befriending another woman as her friend or sister for life. The friendship would be sanctified through a Hindu ritual during the marriage ceremony itself. The bride's friend would usually be of the same age, typically married into the same village and not directly related to her in-laws. This emotional and psychological bond would be considered akin to a blood relationship. It is said that Karva Chauth festival evolved to include celebrating this special bond of friendship.
A few days before Karva Chauth, married women would buy new karvas —7-9" in diameter and 2–3 litres capacity—and paint them on the outside with beautiful designs. Inside, they would put bangles and ribbons, home-made candy and sweets, make-up items, and small clothes. The women would then visit each other on the day of Karva Chauth and exchange these karvas.
Annual dates
The following dates are based on the Hindu calendar.| 2020 | 4 November |
| 2021 | 24 October |
| 2022 | 13 October |
| 2023 | 1 November |
| 2024 | 20 October |
| 2025 | 10 October |
Rituals
Women begin preparing for Karva Chauth a few days in advance, by buying adornments, jewellery, and puja items, such as the Karva lamps, matthi, Mehandi and the decorated puja thali. Local bazaars take on a festive look as shopkeepers put their Karva Chauth related products on display. On the day of the fast, women from Punjab region 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 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 fasting woman by her mother-in-law. If she lives with her mother-in-law, the pre-dawn meal is prepared by the mother-in-law. On Karva Chauth occasion, fasting women choose to wear Karva Chauth special dresses like a traditional saari or lehenga to look their best. In some regions, women wear traditional dresses of their states.The fast begins at dawn. Fasting women do not eat or drink during the day. Hindu wives perform various kind of rituals along with a vrata on Karva Chauth for their husband's long life.
In traditional observances of the fast, the fasting woman usually does no housework. Women apply Mehandi 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 bangles, ribbons, home-made candy, cosmetics and small cloth items. Since Karva Chauth follows soon after the Kharif 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 mehandi, and dress in the complete finery of their wedding dresses. The dresses are frequently red, gold, pink, yellow or orange, which are considered auspicious colours. The fasters sit in a circle with their puja thalis. Depending on region and community, a version of the story of Karva Chauth is narrated, with regular pauses. The storyteller is usually an older woman or a priest, if one is present. The Karva Chauth puja song is sung collectively. In some parts of Uttar Pradesh, in the pauses, the singers perform the feris. While in other parts, the women keep some rice etc. in their hands while listening to the story.
The first six describe some of the activities of fast and the seventh describes the lifting of those restrictions with the conclusion of the fast. The forbidden activities include weaving cloth, pleading with or attempting to please anyone, and awakening anyone who is asleep. For the first six feris they sing
For the seventh feri, they sing
In Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, participants exchange karvas seven times between themselves. In Rajasthan, before offering water seven times the fasting woman is asked "Dhapi ki Ni Dhapi?", to which she responds, "Jal se Dhapi, Suhaag se na Dhapi". An alternative ritual conducted by Uttar Pradeshis is prayer of "gaur mata" the earth. Specifically, celebrants will take a bit of soil, sprinkle water, and then place kumkum on it, treating it as an idol/manifestation of the fertile Mother Earth. In Rajasthan, stories are told by older women in the family, including narratives of Karva Chauth, Shiva, Parvati, and Ganesh. In earlier times, an idol of Gaur Mata was made using earth and cow dung, which has now been replaced with an idol of Parvati. In some communities, especially in and around Bangalore, a visual depiction of HG is used. Each fasting woman lights an earthen lamp in her thali while listening to the Karva story. Sindoor, incense sticks and rice are also kept in the thali.
In Uttar Pradesh, a priest or an elderly woman of the family narrates the story of beejabeti or Veeravati. Celebrants make idols of Shiva, Parvati, and Ganesha with mud and decorate them with colourful and bright clothes and jewellery. While exchanging karvas seven times, they sing
Thereafter, the fasters offer baayna to the idols and hand over to their mother-in-law or sister-in-law.
The fera ceremony concluded, the women await the rising of the moon. Once the moon is visible, depending on the region and community, it is customary for a fasting woman, to view the moon or its reflection in a vessel filled with water, through a sieve, or through the cloth of a dupatta. Then, the woman looks at her husband's face through the sieve. Water is offered to the moon to secure its blessings. In some regions, the woman says a brief prayer asking for her husband's life. It is believed that at this stage, spiritually strengthened by her fast, the woman can successfully confront and defeat death. In Rajasthan, the women say "Like the gold necklace and the pearl bracelet, just like the moon may my suhaag always shine brightly."
Her husband then takes the water from the thali and offers it to his wife; taking her first sip of water during the day, the fast is now broken and the woman can have a complete meal.
Popular cultural aspects and critiques
In modern North India and Northwestern India society, Karva Chauth is considered to be a romantic festival, symbolising the love between a husband and wife. It has been celebrated in Hindi movies such as Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, where an unmarried woman signals her love for a man by keeping the fast for him and he reciprocates by secretly fasting as a gesture of empathy, as well as demonstrating his concern for her during the day and breaking her fast by feeding her at moonrise, and Baghban, in which, over the telephone, a man persuades his fasting elderly wife to break her fast because they have been separated by their uncaring children. News coverage of celebrities sometimes highlights the keeping of the fast by an unmarried public figure because it indicates a strong and likely permanent romantic attachment. Similar to Valentine's Day, the lack of a romantic partner can acutely be felt by unattached women. The festival is used extensively in advertising campaigns in the region, for instance in a Chevrolet TV spot in which a man demonstrates his caring for his wife by buying a car with a sunroof so he can drive her around on Karva Chauth night until she spots the moon through it.Since Karva Chauth is celebrated primarily by women and because beauty rituals and dressing-up are a significant part of the day, the festival is seen as an event that bonds women together. In the present day, groups of unmarried women sometimes keep the fast out of a sense of friendship, though this practice is far from universal. This is especially true in the urban areas of North India and Northwestern India, where the fasting is interpreted as a prayer for a loving husband in the future. Another trend in the northern urban areas is the spreading of the festival's observance to few women originating in communities and regions that have not traditionally celebrated Karva Chauth or even been aware of the festival's existence. The same is true for Gujarat. Karva Chauth 2018 Date 27 October
In certain regions of Bengal, Northeast India, and Bhutan, notably during the Karva Chauth celebrations, a distinctive tradition is observed where teenage boys actively participate in the festivities and join married women in the fasting rituals. The practice is believed to symbolise a collective aspiration for the boys to find suitable life partners in the future. There is also a spiritual dimension to this tradition, as it is said to be an act of devotion to the deity Parvati, who is venerated for her role as a symbol of marital harmony and longevity.