Karva Chauth Festival Images: Hindu Married Women Fasting Puja

Karva Chauth Festival Images and Stock Photos: Karwa Chauth is celebrated mostly by the married women in North India. On this day, they observe a fast, praying for the long life, well being and prosperity of their husband. They break their fast in the evening, after moon rise. On this sacred festival, people come together and socialize with friends and family, exchange gifts and share home-cooked meals. It also provides an opportunity to all married women, to get close to their in-laws. Karwa Chauth is the festival which reflects joy, splendor, brightness and happiness of a married life. Karva Chauth Festival Images and Stock Photos Karva Chauth Festival Images and Stock Photos Karva Chauth is a one-day festival celebrated by Hindu women four days after purnima (a full moon) in the month of Kartika. Dates differ according to Gregorian calendar which is tabular and not based according to constellations. Karva Chauth, like many Hindu festivals, is based on the lunisolar calendar which accounts for all astronomical positions, especially positions of the moon which is used as a marker to calculate important dates. On Karva Chauth women, especially in Northern India, who are married fast from sunrise to moonrise for the safety and longevity of their husbands. The Karva Chauth fast is traditionally celebrated in the states of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Delhi and as Atla Tadde in Andhra Pradesh. The festival falls on the fourth day after the full moon, in the Hindu lunisolar calendar month of Kartik. Sometimes, unmarried women join the fast for their fiances. Karva Chauth Festival Images and Stock Photos Karva is another word for 'pot' (a small earthen pot of water) and chauth means 'fourth' in Hindi (a reference to the fact that the festival falls on the fourth day of the dark-fortnight, or krishna paksha, of the month of Kartik). The festival originated and came to be celebrated only in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent. One hypothesis is that military campaigns were often conducted by men in far off places whereby men would often leave their wives and children to go off to war. Their wives would often pray for their safe return. The festival also coincides with the wheat-sowing time (i.e., the beginning of the Rabi crop cycle). Big earthen pots in which wheat is stored are sometimes called Karvas, so the fast may have begun as a prayer for a good harvest in this predominantly wheat-eating region.