✨Gangaur - गणगौर

Thursday, April 11, 2024
Tritiya Tithi - 10 April 2024 5:32pm - 11 April 2024 3:03pm

Women`s make clay paintings of Shiva and Parvati, dress them in beautiful clothes, worship them, observe a day-long fast for marital happiness and prepare delicious dishes for the family. For the locals of Rajasthan, Devi Parvati represents perfection and marital love. In such a situation, Gangaur festival has special significance for them.

The first and foremost tradition of Gangaur is to collect ashes from the holy fire in earthen pots (kunds) and sow wheat and barley seeds in them. After seven days the women make colorful idols of Gauri and Shivji, chanting mesmerizing Rajasthani folk songs. In some families the idols are preserved for years and decorated and painted on auspicious occasions.

On the evening of the seventh day, a rally is taken out by unmarried girls by placing a lamp inside an earthen pot called Ghudlia. The girls are blessed with small gifts like sweets, jaggery, a little currency, ghee or oil, clothes and jewellery. This continues for the rest of the day and the pottery is broken on the last day of the festival. For all the 18 days newly wed women keep fast for the whole day while other women keep fast by having one meal a day.

On the remaining three days the festive atmosphere reaches its peak, on these days women dress up in ornaments, decorate their hands with Heena (Mehndi), and also decorate their idols for Gangaur Puja. Sinjara is sent by the parents of married women which includes sweets, clothes, jewelry and other decorative items for their daughters.

The final day of Gangaur is grand, with many tourists and locals gathering to watch the procession of women carrying the idols of Gauri and Issar on their heads to a lake, river or garden, and Gauri and Issar. Shiva is given farewell. Their idols are immersed in water.