Karva Chauth 2016: Married women celebrate “Karva Chauth” festival in India today

On Wednesday, married women are celebrating "Karva Chauth" festival in India. Karva Chauth is a great and Hindu festival in India which Indian married women celebrate it with happily on this day. Particularly, only married women celebrate it in India. The married women celebrate it only for her husband’s safety and gladness. ‘Karva’ means earthen pots used to store wheat and ‘chauth’ means the fourth day. The Karva Chauth festival comes every year in the Hindi month of Kartik. On this day, married women fast from sunrise to moonrise praying for the safety and longevity of their husbands. This festival is celebrated such as Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and parts of Uttar Pradesh states of India. Men are generally expected to feed the first bite of food to their wives on the festival. Women dress in bright and colourful ethnic wear, similar to bridal wear and apply beautiful intricate mehendi designs on their hands while they wait for the moon to rise. It is most important part of the rituals to offer prayers to the moon after the moonrise before breaking the fast. God Shiva, Ganesha, Karthikeya and goddess Parvati are also worshipped at this time. After this, the women offer earthen pots containing rice, urad dal to their mother-in-laws. According to Mahabharatha’s Vana Parva, Karva Chauth’s origins can be traced back to the time when Savitri begged the god of death, Lord Yama for her husband’s soul. Karva Chauth is also symbolic of the beginning of the rabi crop-cycle or wheat-sowing time.