Karva Chauth Puja

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.

Sargi is usually eaten before sunrise; after that the fast begins. The sankalpa can be said in your own language; the Sanskrit formula is given for families who use it.

Sankalpa template · adapt it“Today, on Karva Chauth, I, [your name], keep this fast with devotion for the long life, health and happiness of my husband and our family, until I see the moon.”

Keep the fast as your family does. Rest when you can. Many women apply mehndi and dress in festive clothes for the evening.

If you feel faint, dizzy or unwell, drink water and eat something; the health of the person fasting comes first. Many families keep a lighter fast for those who need it.

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.

Some families draw Gauri and Chauth Mata on the wall; others use a printed Karva Chauth calendar. Women of the family or neighbourhood often gather to do the puja together.

Light the lamp. Offer roli, rice, flowers and sweets to Gauri (Parvati), then to Shiva, Kartikeya and Ganesha, saying each one's name-mantra.

Gauri, worshipped as Chauth Mata, is the centre of this puja; the prayer to her asks for good fortune for the women who keep the vrat. Many families remember Ganesha first, as in every puja.

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.

The katha is told in many versions. The one below follows the widely told story of Veeravati. The songs sung while passing the thalis differ by region and are not printed here.

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.

Many families exchange karvas among the women at this point. A Sanskrit verse for giving the karva appears in Drik Panchang, but we found it in only one source, so it is not printed here.

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.

If clouds hide the moon, families follow their own custom: some wait, some go by the published moonrise time. Offer the arghya slowly, with a prayer for the family's well-being.

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.

After a long fast, begin with water and something light before a full meal.