Hartalika Teej is an Indian festival which is celebrated by women for their husbands. Married and unmarried both women can celebrate this day. This festival especially celebrated in the northern and western region of the country. Women observe fasts on this day.
They adorn themselves in traditional finery and gather to perform various rituals during this auspicious day. This festival commemorates the divine union of goddess Parvati, as per the Hindu mythology.
Women observe a day long fast without food and water with enthusiasm and excitement. The enthusiastic way of celebrating Hartalika Teej for women is devotion, music, prayer and dance.
This fast by women is undertaken for the well-being and prosperity of their husbands or to find a loving partner for the unmarried girls. This Hartalika Pooja is celebrated with some rituals related with Goddess Parvati and Lord Shiva.
Let’s look at the Hartalika Story:
As per the scriptures Hartalika Teej is celebrated by Hindu women. Where Harta means abduction and Aalika means female friend called Sakhi.
Once Lord Vishnu sent Narad ji to the king Hinavat who is father of Goddess Parvati, with the proposal of marriage with Lord Vishnu. King Himavat accepted the proposal of marriage, but after knowing this conversation between Narada ji and king Himavat about her marriage, Goddess Parvati got furious, scared and she told everything to her friend Sakhi that she don’t want to marry with Lord Vishnu because her devotion and love is with Lord Shiva and she wants to marry Lord Shiva.
After listening all these things Sakhi suggested Goddess Parvati to go away from home & encourage her to perform strict penance to get Lord Shiva as a husband.
She did exactly the same and lived in the forest in adverse condition with enthusiastic manner. She performed strict penance, offered strict fast, only ate fruits and after this long struggle one day her wish got fulfilled. Seeing her devotion, love and prayer towards him, finally Lord Shiva accepted her as his wife. As per the story this was just a maya which was created by Lord Vishu to union Goddess Parvati and Lord Shiva.
So, through this beautiful story we can understand why this festival is important and why women celebrate this festival for their husbands and loving partners.
There are some rituals to celebrate HARTALIKA TEEJ but everywhere rituals may be different,
but I will tell you my way to celebrate this Hartalika :
- So , to celebrate women who observe this fast in Hartalika puja worship Shivaling, goddess Parvati and Sakhi by making their replicas with the help of sand on a board and light ups diya, offer flowers and decorate puja board.
- Prepare Bhog which is made up of a mixture of rice, cured and sugar
- Prepare Panchamrut which is made up of 5 ingredients, a mixture of ghee, milk, sugar, honey and cured
- Little Panchamrut to be serve on to Hartalika puja, recite vrat, katha and take arti.
- Keep the fast till the next day of puja, take blessings of in-law’s and the elderly members in the family by touching their feet. Ladies sing songs and swing also in celebration.
So, this way the festival rituals are performed in an enthusiastic way which I also follow.
Also, one more important thing that you can observe this fast every year but once you break this chain you can not observe this fast again as per the Hindu scriptures Hartalika Vrat…
So, as you know the importance of this festival, I suggest you to do this fast every year because this will strengthen your bond towards your husband or loving partner and the most important thing, it is a way to preserve and practice our cultural celebration also…
So, Celebrate it every year with fascination !!!