Festival · 2027
The portal of Festivals
Turn a card. Answer all three rightly and this portal is sealed in your sky. New riddles every morning.
May the love you keep be kept in return: patient as the waiting for tonight's Moon, and as bright when it rises.
न वा अरे पत्युः कामाय पतिः प्रियो भवत्यात्मनस्तु कामाय पतिः प्रियो भवति । न वा अरे जायायै कामाय जाया प्रिया भवत्यात्मनस्तु कामाय जाया प्रिया भवति ।
na vā are patyuḥ kāmāya patiḥ priyo bhavatyātmanastu kāmāya patiḥ priyo bhavati । na vā are jāyāyai kāmāya jāyā priyā bhavatyātmanastu kāmāya jāyā priyā bhavati ।
Its meaning
Not for the husband's own sake, dear one, is a husband loved, but for the Self; not for the wife's own sake is a wife loved, but for the Self. In every true love, the one Self meets itself.
Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 2.4.5
When, for Varanasi
18 October 2027
Krishna Tritiya · until 5:52 PM
Kept on the day its tithi runs at moonrise (chandrodaya).
The Moon rises at 7:14 PM
Do
Write or say to the person you love one specific thing you are grateful for in them.
Leave aside
Keeping the fast as a bargain, or through illness. Love is not measured in thirst, and health comes first.
Add your name and send the link. It opens as your wish, with the timing for their own city, the verse, and how to keep the day.
Wishing you a blessed Karva Chauth
Every festival on its right day for Varanasi, inside your phone's own calendar, each one opening its page here. It renews itself every year. No account needed.
For Outlook or any other calendar, add the copied link as a calendar from the internet. For another city, open this page for that city first.
A gentle reminder three days before each festival and on its morning, with its timing for your city.
On the fourth day of the waning fortnight the Moon rises late, well after dusk, and the whole day is shaped by waiting for that rising.
The fourth day of the waning Moon in Kartika: a day of love kept from before dawn until the Moon rises, with Gauri and Ganesha worshipped at dusk and the karva, a clay pot of water, passed from hand to hand.
3 stories the day keeps. Turn each card.
Veeravati, the only sister of seven brothers, kept her first Karva Chauth at her parents' home. As evening came she grew faint, and her brothers, who could not bear to see her suffer, lit a lamp behind a tree and told her the Moon had risen. The story goes on to tell how, when she learned the truth, she kept her love steady through a whole year, and how that steadfastness restored her husband to health. It is told every year at the evening gathering.
The Karva Chauth vrata katha, as the living tradition keeps it.
The image worshipped at dusk is Gauri, Parvati, who chose Shiva and held to that choice through long tapas until he came to her. The day honours a love that is chosen and then kept, not one that is merely received.
Shiva Purana, the story of Parvati's tapas.
A karva is a clay pot with a spout, filled with water or grain. In the evening the women of a lane sit in a circle and pass their thalis from hand to hand while the story is read, and karvas are exchanged as gifts. Before dawn many receive sargi, food prepared by a mother-in-law or an elder of the house, so the day begins with care given across the family.
As the living tradition keeps it.
Often said
If the fast breaks before the Moon, harm comes to the husband.
The root
A story is a teaching, never a threat. Veeravati's tale is about steadfast love, and no one's life is held hostage by another's hunger. Someone unwell, pregnant, nursing or elderly should ease the day or eat; the love is the offering, not the thirst.
Often said
Only a wife keeps the day, and only for her husband.
The root
Nothing in the day forbids a husband from keeping it alongside his wife, and many now do. The verse for today says it plainly: the husband is loved for the Self, and so is the wife. Love runs both ways.
Free acts, done by you. Kept so far this year: 0 of 3.
Write or say to the person you love one specific thing you are grateful for in them.
Sit with an elder of the family today, and return the care of sargi with an hour of your own.
When the Moon rises, sit quietly for a few minutes with the heart, holding the people you love in it.
Each act is free and done by you. Keeping one writes it to your karma ledger with the day's panchang. Nothing here is ever bought, and no act is a remedy.
The youngest
Ask a parent or grandparent how they met, and draw the Moon you see tonight.
The eldest
Tell the young ones the day's story, and one hard year of your own marriage and how it was crossed.
Everyone
Wait for the Moon together outside, phones away; whoever sees it first calls the others.
Punjab, Haryana and Delhi
Sargi is eaten before dawn. In the evening the women gather, pass the thali round the circle while the story is told, and at moonrise look at the Moon through a sieve, then at their husband's face.
Rajasthan
The day's goddess is Chauth Mata, and her best known temple stands at Chauth ka Barwara in Sawai Madhopur, where devotees gather on the chauth days of the year.
Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh
In many homes a picture of the day, with Gauri, the Moon and the karva, is drawn or pasted on the wall and worshipped at dusk before the Moon is offered water.
Kept on the day its tithi runs at moonrise (chandrodaya).
The day is chosen by the moment the tradition reads its tithi at, and the times are that day's own, computed for this city. A festival-specific puja window is not printed: those rules differ by tradition and await a scholar's review.
The stories, their sources and the regional customs on this page await a scholar's review. The sky and the dates are computed for your city.