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Karwa Chauth or Karva Chauth is one of the most significant festivals for all Hindu married women or those of marriageable age. On this day, women pray for the safety and well-being of their husbands, fiancés or preferred husbands. It is celebrated with great ardor in the northern parts of India.
Read on to know more about Karwa Chauth 2021, its date, timings, and how it is celebrated in India.
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What is Karwa Chauth (Karva Chauth)?
‘Karwa’ translates to an earthen pot, and ‘Chauth’ means the fourth day. The festival of Karwa (Karva) Chauth is devoted to the beautiful bond of marriage that commemorates the steadfast love and support that holds a marriage together. According to the Hindu lunar calendar, it is celebrated on the fourth day after the full moon in the month of Kartik.
Women observe a nirjala vrat (fasting without water) and take an oath to observe the fast with utmost devotion and integrity. They worship the deities – Karwa Mata, Lord Shiva, Lord Ganesha, and Lord Kartikeya to invoke blessings for a prosperous life for their husbands. It is believed that if a married woman maintains the Karwa Chauth fast, her husband will lead a long and healthy life, resulting in a happy marriage.
Karwa Chauth 2021 date and timings
According to Hindu tradition, Karwa Chauth fast is observed every year on Krishna Paksha Chaturthi. This year, Karwa Chauth is celebrated ten days before Diwali.
Karwa Chauth date is Sunday, 24 October 2021.
Karwa Chauth pooja timings start at 05:43 PM and end at 06:59 PM.
Karwa Chauth fast timings start from 06:27 AM to 08:07 PM.
Moonrise time of Karwa Chauth: 8:07 PM.
The Chaturthi Tithi on Karwa Chauth begins on the 24 October at 03:01 AM and ends on 25 October at 05:43 AM.
How is it usually celebrated in India?
A few days before the festival, women buy earthen pots decorated with intricate designs with contents like sweets and bangles inside them. These pots are exchanged with other women on the day of the festival. A day before Karwa Chauth, married women are gifted a basket (sargi) consisting of a pre-dawn meal full of fruits, food, jewellery, and other items by their mother-in-law.
Cosmetics, traditional jewellery, and puja items including an oil lamp, a sieve, flowers, cotton wicks, vermilion, incense sticks, thread roll, sandalwood, turmeric, honey, sugar, milk, water, curd, clarified butter (ghee), sweets and camphor are among the other items purchased in preparation for the Karwa Chauth Puja.
Women begin Karwa Chauth fast by maintaining a day-long fast (nirjala vrat), which means they neither drink nor eat anything between sunrise and sunset on this day. Fasting women adorn their hands with henna and spruce up in make-up, clothes and jewellery.
Once the moon rises in the evening, the Karwa Chauth Puja is performed. The devotees sing a prayer for the long life of their husbands and pass around a thali consisting of the earthen pot, a lit lamp, sweets and other items while singing a prayer. It is a tradition for women to look at the moon through a sieve and then their husbands face. The devotees then break their Karwa Chauth fast after the moon sighting by drinking water at the hands of their spouse.
Where is it celebrated in India?
Karwa Chauth is a one-day festival observed predominantly in India’s northern region and is celebrated widely across the states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and Delhi.
