KARVA CHAUTH-THE FESTIVAL

 YES, one more festival, one more celebration J. Well most of my non-indian readers would be interested to know- what is Karva Chauth? Ok, no worries I’ll give a brief insight on it.

“Karva” is another word for “diya” (a small earthen oil-lamp) and “chauth” means 'fourth' in Hindi (a reference to the fact that the festival falls on the 4th day of the dark-fortnight of the month of Kartik as per Hindu calender).

Karva Chauth is one-day festival celebrated by Hindu and some Sikh women in North India in which married women fast from sunrise to moonrise for the safety and longevity of their husbands. Yes, today I’m certifying that I’m married because many people still think that I’m a bachelor.

The fast is kept in such a high spirits by the married ladies that they don’t even drink a single droplet of water from the sunrise to the moon-rise. I’m sure you might be thinking that how hard are these rituals to follow, aren’t you? Ironically, when you ask the same question to the married ladies, who are keeping these fasts, they happily take pride in it and they embark this day a very special for the love of their husband.

A special day means a special dress code. On this very special day all the ladies dress up in their traditional outfits along with their traditional accessories. As part of the dress code, the ladies also apply Mehendi(Henna) on their hands. 

My Wife's Last Year's Henna 

In the night when the moon rises, the wife first of all worships the moon and then her husband. As part of the ritual, then Husband offers his wife the water, which wife drinks and breaks the fast, and it is then followed by a special romantic dinner date.

This year's henna

 Well, this is all going to happen tomorrow for us as we(Wife n me :-) are going to celebrate our second Karva Chauth. My wife has applied a really cool design on her hands using the henna and guess what she has also engraved my name(Vivek) on her hand. Anyway, I leave that task to you to find out where it is in the picture.