Karwa Chauth

Karwa Chauth falls on the fourth day after the full moon in the month North India calls Kartik; in the Amanta calendar of the West and South the same night belongs to Ashvin. It usually comes nine to eleven days before Diwali and four days before Ahoi Ashtami, the fast mothers keep for their children.

Because the fast is broken by sighting the moon, the deciding factor is moonrise: panchangs choose the day on which Chaturthi tithi prevails at moonrise, and give the evening puja muhurat and the expected moonrise time for each city. On a waning Chaturthi the moon rises well after dark, often between eight and nine in the evening in North India. The night is also a Sankashti Chaturthi, the monthly Ganesha fast of the waning fourth day.

Karwa Chauth is a folk vrat rather than one prescribed in an early scripture, and its stories are told in the evening katha that women hear together.

Veeravati. The best-known katha tells of Queen Veeravati, the only sister of seven brothers, who kept her first Karwa Chauth at her parents' home. As evening came she was faint with hunger and thirst. Unable to bear it, her brothers lit a fire behind a tree and showed her its glow through a sieve, saying the moon had risen. She broke her fast, and soon after received news that her husband had died. Grief-stricken, she kept the vrat with full devotion the following year, and by the grace of the goddess her husband was restored to life.

Karva. Another story tells of a devoted wife named Karva whose husband was seized by a crocodile while bathing. She bound the crocodile with cotton thread and demanded that Yama, the god of death, punish it and spare her husband. Fearing the power of her devotion, Yama agreed, and the fast takes its name from her as well as from the clay pot.

Other tellings link the vrat to Draupadi, who is said to have kept it on Krishna's advice when the Pandavas were in difficulty, and to Savitri, whose devotion won back Satyavan's life from Yama in the Mahabharata.

Historians and anthropologists offer other explanations: prayers by wives of soldiers far from home, a harvest-time rite linked to the clay pots (karwa) in which wheat was stored, and the custom of a new bride befriending another woman in her husband's village as a lifelong 'sister' with whom karwas were exchanged.

Practice differs between Punjab, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh and between families. A common pattern:

The traditional fast runs from sunrise to moonrise, without food or water. Many women now take water, fruit or milk during the day, especially if they are pregnant, nursing, elderly or unwell; doctors and religious teachers alike encourage adapting the fast to one's health. Women usually avoid sleeping during the day, sewing or cutting with scissors, and quarrels. If the moon is hidden by cloud, families rely on the panchang moonrise time or wait for it to appear. Unmarried women sometimes keep the fast for a future husband, and many husbands now fast alongside their wives.

In Punjab, the evening circle is marked by songs as the thalis are passed, and the bride's first Karwa Chauth is a large family celebration. In Rajasthan, women ask the fasting woman 'Dhapi ki na dhapi?' ('Are you satisfied?') as water is offered, and she replies that she is satisfied by water but never by her love for her husband. In Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, women paint the wall with images of Gauri, the moon, the sun and household scenes, and eat sweet vermicelli on the eve. In Himachal and Jammu, the evening puja is often held at the local temple. A related women's festival, Atla Taddi, is kept in Andhra Pradesh.

Sargi includes pheniyan or sooth feni with milk, mathri, fruit and dry fruit to sustain the day. At night the fast is broken with a meal of the family's choosing, often puri, kachori, sabzi, kheer and halwa. Markets fill in the days before with karwas, sieves, bangles, mehndi artists and puja thalis. Married daughters often receive gifts from their parents, and mothers-in-law receive the baya.

At heart, Karwa Chauth is a vow of love and care for one's partner, carried out through discipline and prayer. It also gathers women of a neighbourhood for an evening of shared ritual, song and support. As families change, the festival has changed with them: couples increasingly fast together, many keep a gentler fast for health, and women who choose not to observe it are respected in that choice. The moon that ends the fast, seen through a sieve, remains one of North India's most loved images of devotion within a marriage.