For the royal Rajasthan, festival of Gangaur is of utmost significance, especially for the womenfolk. It is marks the merriment of spring’s arrival, harvest and marital fidelity. All women worship Gauri, the wife of Lord Shiva. The festival is very popular among all Rajasthani ladies, and with its colorful rituals it beautifully brings out the vibrancy of happy women dressed in pretty leheriya sarees and their adorned kalash make them look even more attractive. The unmarried women worship Gauri for blessing them with excellent husbands, while the married ones do so for the wellbeing, strength and long life of their husbands and a happy married life with them. Gangaur is also celebrated in some parts of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Gujarat.
The festival starts on the first day of Chaitra according to Purnimant School and is celebrated for 18 long days. In North Indian Purnimant based calendars start Chaitra month approximately fifteen days before Gudi Padwa and Udagi.
DATE
This year the festival falls on 9th of April which is being named as Gauri Tritiya in the Hindu calendar.
TIME
Tritiya Tithi Begins = 09:22 on 9/Apr/2016
Tritiya Tithi Ends = 05:55 on 10/Apr/2016
HOW TO CELEBRATE
Ladies and women keep fasts and eat one time a day. They get the opportunity to wear new dresses, decorate themselves with jewellery and apply mehndi on their hands.
Images of Gauri and Lord Shiva are prepared with the clay and decorated wonderfully.
7th day’s evening, the womenfolk carry ‘ghudilas’ on their heads. They are earthen pots with many holes inside and which holds a lit lamp inside it. They sing songs of Gangaur and are given gifts in the form of money, jaggery, ghee, sweets etc. by the elders of the family as a symbol of love.
On the last day all women and girls smash their pots and throw the broken pieces into a well or a tank nearby, which is then followed by a grand celebratory Gangaur procession throughout the main roads of the city.
