To pray for the husband’s longevity, married women of our country keep a day-long fast and this festival is known as Karwa Chauth. They get decked up in their best garments and jewelries and follow certain rituals which are regarded as auspicious for a congenial married life. Some husbands also observe fast to show their love and affection for their wife. Karwa Chauth gifts are generally given by the mother-in-law in the form of Sargi to her daughter-in-law.
Here are some interesting factors about Karwa Chauth that you were not told before.
- Karva means an earthen pot of water in hindi while Chauth means fourth. It signifies the fact that this festival falls on the fourth day of the dark-fortnight, or krishna paksh, of the month of Kartik.
- The exactness of the time when this festival came into our culture is still unknown. But basically it is followed in North West India. One set of belief is that the military campaigns resumed in the time of this festival and the area dried and numerous rivers subsided due to effects of monsoon, the – women prayed for the safety of their husbands.
- This awesome festival coincides with the wheat-sowing time and Karva is also referred to earthen pot where wheat is stored. So, may be this festival started as a prayer for a good harvest season ahead.
- A beautiful story of Veervati is also heard as a reason for Karva Chauth celebration. Veervati was the attractive queen who had seven protective brothers. She spent her first Karva Chauth as a married woman at her parents place and followed a fast from sunrise to moonrise. The fast was a strict one where she refrained from drinking water as well and she used to wait desperately for the moonrise to drink water. Her brothers couldn’t see their sister in such an agony. So, they hung a mirror in a pipal tree that made it look as though the moon had risen and Veervati ate and drank mistaking that moon is up in the sky. The moment she started eating, words came that her husband is dead. She cried all through the night and a Goddess arrived saying that she was tricked by her brothers and she was also instructed to follow the fast again in a more rigid way. When she did that, the God of death Yama was forced to restore her husband’s life.
- Apart from Veervati story, there is also a story of Karva associated with this festival. Once Karva’s husband was attacked by a crocodile in a river and Karva bind the crocodile with a cotton yarn and asked Yama to send it to hell. To the denial of Yama, Karva threatened to curse him but Yama finally had to agree because her love and dedication was very intense for her husband.
As a Karva Chauth gift idea you can go ahead with a set of jewelry.