Stories associated with Karva Chauth

The festival of Karva Chauth is celebrated by all Hindu married women every year in the month of Kartik. A full day is fast is observed by them to seek long life and good health of their husbands. During this particular day, the fast starts before sunrise in the early morning and ends after moonrise at night. There are several legends associated with this carnival.

The Legend of Queen Veeravati

A beautiful girl Veeravati, who was the only sister of seven loving brothers, get married with a king a long time ago. She reached her parent’s house on the day of her first Karva Chauth. She kept a strict fast after sunrise. She was feeling very hungry and eagerly waiting for the moonrise in the evening. Her loving seven brothers were not able to see the distress of their sister and finally decided to break her fast by misleading her. For this purpose, the brothers reflected a mirror by the leaves of Pipal tree and the sister considered it as moonrise. So, she ended the fast and took food. However, the moment the queen took the food, she got the information that her husband, the king, was critically ill. After hearing this news, she rushed to her husband’s fort and she met with God Shiva and his consort, Mother Parvati on the way. The queen received the information from Goddess Parvati that her husband had died because she had ended her fast by seeing a false moon. However, when she asked her for mercy, the goddess granted her the benefit that the king would be re-energized but she would have to perform the Karva Chauth fast under strict customs to get her husband back in life. Thus, queen Veeravati got her husband back in her life by strictly following all the customs of Karva chauth.

The Story of Mahabharata

Once upon a time, Arjun went to Nilgiri Mountain for austerity. In his absence, rest of the Pandavas faced a lot of problems. At that time, Draupadi remembered God Krishna for help. Lord Krishna advised her to do the fast of Karva Chauth with the complete rituals. Then she followed his advice and executed the fast with full devotion. After that all problems of Pandavas get resolved.

The Legend of Satyavan and Savitri

There is a popular story of the Satyavan and Savitri behind the Karva Chauth celebration. When Lord Yama came to acquire Satyavan’s spirit, Savitri begged him to let him alive. When he denied her request, she stopped consuming food and drinking and finally Yamraj accepted her request. He granted her husband’s life. As a result of this, Karva Chauth is celebrated with full trust and belief on this day.

The Story of Karva
On the basis of another legend, a woman called Karva was very loyal towards her husband. One day while bathing, her husband was caught by an alligator. Karva reached over there and tied the crocodile with a cotton thread. Then, she reached to Yama (the God of the death) and requested him to send the Alligator to the hell for doing crime. When Lord Yama refused to do it, she intimidated to curse him. Afraid of the power of a faithful wife, Yama gladly accepted her request and sent the Alligator to Yamalok or hell. Along with this, he blessed Karva’s husband with longevity.

Atul goyal is a professional content writer who loves writing articles relating to festive occasions. you can get very useful information on Karva chauth 2014, New Age Karva Chauth ,Karva chauth date and Karva chauth Story. Find Frestival info on http://www.truthstar.com and much more.

The Procedure of Keeping Fast during Navratri

The nine days festival of Navratri is celebrated with the worship of Goddess Shakti in all regions of the country. It is the best time to increase your spiritual practice or to purify your soul. Devotees must know the sacred story of Navratri before doing Navratri fasting.

There are many stories related to the festival. According to the legend, in Navratri, Maa Durga killed a demon called Mahishasura to free all the deities from his suffering. Mahishasura took the unique powers by the worship of Lord Shiva and three dev ‘Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh’ were also unable to defeat him. Gods were frightened by the terror of Mahishasura. At that time, the Gods incarnated Durga with their strengths and Maa Durga removed all sufferings by defeating Mahishasur. So, there are many other legends behind it after which the worship of Maa Durga started and people began the celebration of Navratri.

Navratri fasting is done by majority of people in all over India. In Maharashtra and Gujrat, devotees observe Fasting during Navratri for seven days and break their fast on the eighth day of the occasion after worshipping young girls. On the other hand, some devotees keep the fast until the Ashtami and break their fast only on the ninth day of the festival.

Procedure of Fasting During Navratri

The fast of Navratri is observed by the people for seven or eight days depending upon the kanchika pujan. The worship of young girls is known as kanchika pujan in which devotees offer prasad to the young girls. According to the tradition, they serve puris (deep fried Indian bread), halwa (sweet dish made of suji) and Bengal gram curry to them. After taking the blessings of young girls, the devotees break their fast by eating the prasad of puri, halwa and sabzi that they prepared for kanchikayen.

During fasting, devotees wake up early in the morning and offer prayers to the deity after taking holy bath. People, who have observed fast, follow a special diet for Navtratri if they have not kept a waterless fast. They do not take non-vegetarian food, alcohol and the dishes made up of common salt. To prepare rotis or puris, Singhare ka atta (kuttu ka atta) is used while fasting.

Generally, food made of sago and potato is taken by the people while fasting during Navratri. Sendha namak (rock salt) can be used instead of common salt for cooking food. All foodstuff made of fruits are consumed during the Navratri fast. Now days, special menu is available in the restaurants for the people who observe fast on Navratri. Ready-to-eat snacks are also accessible in various stores.

Some food ingredients allowed during Navratri fast are as follows:

• You can make the dishes of sabudana or tapioca pearls.
• Makhana kheer, roasted makhana or a makhana sabzi can be made.
• All dry fruits are allowed to add in halwas or other dishes.
• You can consume all fruits or fruit juices.
• All milk products and sugar, honey, gur or jaggery are allowed.

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Fasting During Navratri

Navratri is a festival dedicated to the worship of the Hindu Goddess Durga. As the word Navratri means ‘nine nights’ in Sanskrit, as the word nava refers nine and ratri refers nights. During these nine nights and ten days, nine forms of Goddess are worshiped. The tenth day is commonly celebrated as Vijayadashami or “Dussehra”). Navratri is an important major festival and is celebrated with great passion all over India among hindus. Diwali the festival of lights is celebrated twenty days after Dusehra.

Fasting during Navratri is done the nine days before Dussehra.

Navaratri is celebrated five times a year. Of these five, the Sharad Navaratri of the month of Puratashi and the Vasanta Navaratri of the Vasanta kala are the most important. Other two are celebrated only by shaktas only.

The festival is famed for nine nights once every year during the beginning of the month October, although as the dates of the festival are determined according to the lunar calendar, the festival may be held for a day more or a day less.

Fasting During Navaratri is celebrated in different ways all through India. In North India, all three Navaratris are celebrated with much faith by fasting on all nine days and worshiping the Goddess Durga in her different forms. The Chaitra Navratri terminates in Ram Navami and the Sharad Navaratri terminates in Durga Puja and Dussehra. In north The Dussehra of Kullu in Himachal Pradesh is particularly famous. In Gujarat also, Navratri is one of the main festivals. After worshipping Durga people perform a dance form named Garba on all nine nights, in groups with live orchestra or devotional songs.

In most regions of India Navratri is divided into sets of three days to impress three different aspects of the supreme goddess or goddesses.

• In the first three days of fasting, the goddess Durga is worshipped in form of Kali in order to vanish all our evil deeds.
• Second three days: The Mother is prayed as a giver of wealth, Goddess Lakshmi, who is considered to have the power of awarding on her believers wealth, as she is the goddess of wealth.
• On the last three days, the Goddess of wisdom, Saraswati is worshipped in order to gain every success in life. Devotees seek the awards of all the three divine Goddess, on the nine days of fasting and worship.

On tenth day Dussehra is celebrated as conquer of evil by truth.

Foods consumed when fasting during Navratri are:

• Most people limit themselves to fruit during the nine days/nights.
• Some people confine themselves to water and break their fast at night after prayer.
• Some devotees take a single meal during the day/night, and non-vegetarian food is strictly prohibited.
• Also, in making the food during fast onion and garlic is not used.
• One of ideal foods which is consumed during Navratri fasts is sabudana vada.
• The fast is broken during night after worshipping their Goddess Durga or her other forms.

Some of major food items consumed during fasting are:

 Paasi paruppu (moong dal) Sundal

 Pattani (yellow peas) Sundal

 Black bean Sundal

 Pachai payaru (green moong) Sundal

 Peanut Sundal

 Karamani (black eyed peas) Sundal

 rajma  sundal

 Soya bean sundal

 Puri Chana and Halwa

Sabudana khichdi

 Makhane Ki Sabzi

MR.Atul goyal is a professional content writer who loves writing articles relating to festive occasions. you can get very useful information on Fasting During Navratri, Navratri 2014, history of Navratri, Navratri 2014 date and Navratri recipes. Find Frestival info on http://www.truthstar.com and much more.

Karva Chauth Story

The Karva Chauth Story is better understood by the festival which is celebrated by Hindu women in North India in which married women fast from sunrise to moonrise for the safety and long life of their husbands. Mainly the fast is observed in the states of, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, western Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Chhattisgarh and  Madhya Pradesh. The festival falls on the fourth day after the full moon, in the Hindu calendar month named Kartik. Sometimes, unmarried women fast for their desired husbands or beloved ones.

Apart from this, the festival is celebrated for whole one day. Karva refers to ‘pot’ (which is a small earthen pot of water) and chauth refers ‘fourth’ in Hindi (an association to the fact that the festival falls on the fourth day of the dark-fortnight, of the month of Kartik). It is not sure how the festival originated and how it came to be celebrated only in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent.

Besides all, one Karva Chauth story here is that Earlier, girls mostly teenagers used to get married, and live with their in-laws in very distant villages from villages of their parents. For the new bride everyone there was a stranger. In case she had any problems she could not talk with anyone to seek support. Her parents and relatives would be quite inaccessible and far. There was no means of transport in those days. People had to walk for a whole day to go from one place to other. Thus, at the time of marriage, when bride would reach her in-laws home, she could make friend another woman there who would be her friend or sister for life. More like Good-friends or Good-sisters. Their friendship would be consecrated through a small Hindu ceremony during the marriage. These friends usually are of same age so that both would not go away as they are married in the same village and both are far from their parents’ village.

Once the bride and this woman had become good-friends, they would recognize their relation as such forever. They used to treat each other like real sisters. If any issues took place in their life, that involved even the husband or in-laws, these friend would easily talk upon the matters and took advice. Also, the bride’s parents would treat her friend just like their own daughter. That’s the Karva Chauth Story which started as a festival to celebrate this special bond of friendship between the brides and their good-friends.

Women  prepares for Karva Chauth a few days in advance, by buying traditional ornaments, cosmetics and prayer things, such as the Karva lamps, sweets, henna  and the decorated prayer plate. In addition to this, local markets take on a festive look as shopkeepers put their Karva Chauth related products on display.

The concept of praying and fasting for the husband came much later. It was probably added, along with other hypothetical tales, to beautify and strengthen the bond between husband and wife.

MR.Atul goyal is a professional content writer who loves writing articles relating to festive occasions. you can get very useful information on Karva chauth 2014, New Age Karva Chauth ,Karva chauth date and Karva chauth Story. Find Frestival info on http://www.truthstar.com and much more.