Also known as: Karak Chaturthi, Karaka Chaturthi, Karva Chauth · Observed: Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Madhya Pradesh
Significance of Karwa Chauth
Karwa Chauth is a vrata observed mainly by married women in North and Northwest India for the long life, health and prosperity of their husbands. From before sunrise until the moon rises, women keep a strict fast, traditionally without food or water, and in the evening they gather to worship Goddess Gauri and hear the vrata katha. The fast is broken only after the moon is seen and offered water. Karwa refers to the earthen pot with a spout used in the ritual, and chauth to the fourth lunar day.
Beyond its religious meaning, the day is a celebration of marriage and of the companionship of women, who dress in bridal finery, apply mehendi and spend the day together. In many families, unmarried girls and husbands now also keep the fast.
The Story of Veeravati
The best-known katha tells of Veeravati, the only sister of seven loving brothers. Keeping her first Karwa Chauth fast at her parents' home, she grew faint with hunger and thirst. Her brothers, unable to bear her distress, lit a fire behind a tree or held a mirror on a hill to create the illusion of the rising moon. Believing it real, she broke her fast, and soon received news that her husband had died. Grief-stricken, she prayed to Goddess Parvati, who revealed the deception and told her to keep the fast faithfully. Through her devotion over the following year, her husband was restored to life. Other stories told on the day include the faithful wife Karwa, who saved her husband from a crocodile, and the tale of Savitri and Satyavan.
How Karwa Chauth Is Observed
Before dawn, women eat sargi, a meal sent or prepared by the mother-in-law, with fruit, sweets, mathri, pheni and dry fruits, to sustain them through the day. During the day they apply mehendi and prepare for the evening puja. Around sunset, women gather in a circle with decorated thalis bearing the karwa filled with water, a lamp, sweets and roli, and pass the thalis around while singing traditional songs and listening to the katha. An image of Gauri, sometimes with Shiva and Ganesha, is worshipped.
When the moon rises, the woman views it through a sieve, often with a lamp, then looks at her husband through the same sieve. She offers arghya, water, to the moon and prays, and the husband then gives her the first sip of water and bite of food to break the fast. The baya, a gift of clothes, sweets and money, is given by the woman to her mother-in-law.
How the Date Is Determined
Karwa Chauth falls on the Chaturthi of the dark fortnight in the month of Kartika in the purnimanta calendar of North India, which is Ashwin Krishna Chaturthi in the amanta calendar. Because the fast ends at moonrise, the festival is fixed on the day when Chaturthi prevails at the time of moonrise. It coincides with the Sankashti Chaturthi of that month, and it falls about nine days before Diwali. Moonrise times differ from city to city, which is why local timings are important.
Rituals and customs
- Pre-dawn sargi meal from the mother-in-law
- Fasting without food or water until moonrise
- Applying mehendi and wearing bridal attire
- Evening Gauri puja with karwa and thali in a circle
- Hearing the Karwa Chauth katha
- Viewing the moon through a sieve and offering arghya