Karwa chauth 2019: Read about the festival and the story of Veervati

The Hindu Karwa Chauth festival is a celebration for married women that many welcome with great enthusiasm and fervour. Women keep a nirjala fast on this day, which means that food and water are not consumed from sunrise to moonrise. Women fast on this day to pray for their husbands' safe and long lives. Karwa Chauth is celebrated on the fourth day after Purnima in the Kartik month, according to the Hindu calendar. Married women dress up in new clothes on this day and put mehendi as part of the festival rituals. On this day, women who fast get together and celebrate it by telling folk tales, reading Karwa Chauth Vrat Katha and singing folk songs, all of which make it a vibrant festival. Women in the Karwa Chauth puja also worship Goddess Parvati, followed by Lord Shiva, Lord Ganesh, and Lord Kartikeya. The fast is later broken after having a look at the moon. Karwa Chauth is celebrated particularly in the country's northern region, which includes the states of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Himachal Pradesh. There are many different folk tales that are attributed to explain the origin of the festival.

Read Queen Veervati’s story below:

Veervati, a beautiful princess, was the only daughter of her parents amongst seven caring sons. She spent her first Karva Chauth in the house of her parents, as a married woman. She began fasting at sunrise and waited patiently for the moon to rise at night. She could no longer bear the thirst and hunger. Her brothers couldn't stand watching their sibling in pain. They begged her to eat something, but she refused to break her fast. Seeing her in distress, they tricked her by placing a round mirror on a pipal tree that made it look like the moon had risen. Veervati fell for it and broke her fast. The moment she sat down to eat, the news came that the king, her husband, was dead.

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There is more than one version. One of the versions says that when Veeravati heard about the death of her husband, she rushed back to his house and ended up meeting Shiva and Parvati on the way. Parvati told Veeravati that her husband had passed away because she did not follow the fast rules, after to which Veeravati explained to Parvati that her brothers had tricked her into breaking her fast. As a result, Parvati cuts her little finger to give a few drops of her holy blood to Veeravati, instructing her to finish the next day's fast. Veeravati sprinkles the blood of Parvati on her dead husband and brings him back to life.

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