India’s popular Hindu festival Karwa Chauth is celebrated by married women with great enthusiasm. The women on this day keep the fast on the day for the long life of their husbands. They keep ‘nirjala’ fast which means that they can’t even drink water from sunrise to moonrise. The fast is broken only after seeing the glimpse of the moon.
Though, there are many men too who fastens today for the longevity of their wives. According to the Hindu calendar, Karwa Chauth is celebrated on the 4th day of Purnima in the Kartika month. This year it’s celebrating in the country today i.e. 17th October 2019.
On Karwa Chauth, women dress up beautifully mainly in new clothes and apply Mehandi on their hands due to the festive rituals. The fastening women celebrate the festival together by singing folk songs, narrating folk tales and reading Karwa Chauth vrat Katha to worship.
However, Karwa Chauth is celebrated in the whole country but basically, it’s a festival of the Northern region which includes states like Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh.
Story of Karwa Chauth
There are many stories behind celebrating Karwa Chauth. Let’s know all of these one by one.
Queen Veeravati- The most popular story about Karwa Chauth is about the beautiful queen Veeravati. She was the only sister of seven loving brothers and celebrating her first Karwa Chauth at her parent’s house. Due to the all-day first, she was desperately waiting for the moonrise in the evening. Putting up her hunger and thirst was becoming tough for her and this made her brothers worried. They were anguished to see their sister following the festival rituals and suffering from hunger and thirst. They convinced her a lot to eat food and break her fast but she refused. Later, all the brothers decided to show her a false moon. They created a false moon through a round mirror in a peepal tree. She falls on this trick and decided to break her fast. When she sat to eat, the news came that her husband died.
Mahabharata- Another story takes us back to the Mahabharata era where Draupadi kept this fast for the well being of her husbands. It happened that Arjun had gone to the Nilgris for the penance and during his absence, the rest 4 Pandavas were facing problems. Due to which, Draupadi remind Lord Krishna and the Lord reminded her of the similar situation of Goddess Parvati, she kept the fast for Lord Shiva. Inspired by this, Draupadi also did the same and followed all the rituals for her husbands. In result, Pandavas were able to overcome their problems.
Karva- Another popular tale of this festival is Karva, who was a devoted wife. The story was that one day his husband was bathing in the river and he was caught by a crocodile. For saving her husband’s life she tied the crocodile with cotton yarn and demanded God Yamraj to send him in hell. When Yama refused this, then she threatened him that she will kill the crocodile with her curse. Due to this fear, Yam sends the crocodile to the hell and blessed her husband with longevity.
Discussion1 Comment
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