Printable puja sheets

What to gather

• ☐ An image or printed Karva Chauth calendar of Gauri (Chauth Mata) with Shiva, Ganesha and Kartikeya
• ☐ Clay or metal karvas (spouted pots) with lids: one for the puja and one to give
• ☐ Water to fill the karva, and a lota of water for the moon arghya
• ☐ Roli or kumkum, haldi, akshat and mauli
• ☐ Flowers, incense and a ghee lamp
• ☐ Sweets or laddoos, fruit, and mathri if your family makes it
• ☐ A sieve (channi) for viewing the moon, as many families do
• ☐ A coin or money for the karva, and the gifts (baya) your family gives
• ☐ Sargi: a light pre-dawn meal, often prepared by the mother-in-law, such as fruit, dry fruit, sweets or mathri
• ☐ Water to drink with the sargi

Steps

1. Before sunrise: sargi and sankalpa. If sargi is part of your family's custom, eat it before dawn and drink water. After bathing, take the sankalpa: state in your own words that you will keep the fast until moonrise.
2. Through the day. Keep the fast as your family does. Rest when you can. Many women apply mehndi and dress in festive clothes for the evening.
3. Prepare for the evening puja. Set up the image or calendar of Gauri (Chauth Mata). Fill the karva with water, place the lamp, the plate and the sweets, and keep the sieve and the lota ready for moonrise.
4. Worship Gauri and Shiva's family. Light the lamp. Offer roli, rice, flowers and sweets to Gauri (Parvati), then to Shiva, Kartikeya and Ganesha, saying each one's name-mantra.
5. Hear the Karva Chauth katha. Sit together and read or listen to the katha. In many families the women then pass their thalis around the circle, often seven times, singing the family's Karva Chauth song.
6. Give the karva. Fill a karva with water or milk and place a coin in it. Give it, with the baya (gifts), to your mother-in-law or an elder married woman, and take her blessing.
7. At moonrise: arghya to the moon. When the moon rises, look at it (many families look through the sieve), offer water from the lota towards it saying the name-mantra, and show the lamp. Then, as many families do, look at your husband through the sieve.
8. Break the fast. Receive water and the first bite of food, often from your husband. Touch the feet of the elders, share the prasad and enjoy the meal together.