Karwa Chauth: What, Why, When, How

What it is

Karwa Chauth is a one-day fast kept mainly by married women of North and North-West India (Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu), and by many of their families abroad. They pray for the long life and well-being of their husbands. "Karwa" is the clay pot with a spout used in the puja, and "Chauth" means the fourth: the fast falls on the fourth tithi of the dark half of the moon, about eleven days before Diwali.

The fast runs from sunrise until the moon rises. In the evening women gather in their best clothes, hear the story of the vrat, and wait for the moon. When it rises they offer it water, look at it, often through a sieve, and then break the fast from their husband's hand.

Customs vary from family to family. Some women take no food or water all day; others drink water or eat fruit. In many families today husbands fast too, and some unmarried women keep the day. It is a vow kept by choice, and families who cannot fast keep the day with the puja and the meal. The same tithi is also the monthly Sankashti Chaturthi of Ganesha.

Why it is kept

Karwa Chauth has no single scripture of its own. Its stories are told in the vrat katha, the story of the vow, which older women tell at the evening puja and which is printed in many small vrat-katha books. Families tell different stories, and many tell more than one.

Veeravati. The best-known telling is about a young wife named Veeravati, the only sister of seven brothers. On her first Karwa Chauth she grew faint with hunger and thirst. Her brothers could not bear to see her suffer, so they lit a lamp behind a tree and told her that the moon had risen, and she broke her fast. In the story, sorrow followed, and she won her husband back by keeping the vow again with full faith, with the blessing of the Goddess Parvati. The story honours her faith and courage. It is a story of devotion, not a warning: the vow is kept by choice.

Karwa. Another telling is about a devoted wife named Karwa, whose husband was seized by a crocodile while bathing in a river. She bound the crocodile with cotton thread and went to Yama, the lord of death, to ask for her husband's life. Moved by her devotion, Yama granted it. Many families say the festival is named after her as well as after the pot.

Savitri. Many families also remember Savitri, whose story is told in the Mahabharata (Vana Parva). She followed Yama when he came for her husband Satyavan, and her wisdom and steadfastness won back his life. Karwa Chauth tellings often name her as the model of a wife's devotion.

The Goddess and the moon. The evening puja honours Gauri, the Goddess Parvati, often with Shiva, Ganesha and Kartikeya, as the image of a happy household; in Rajasthan she is called Chauth Mata. The moon is honoured with water at its rising. The vrat katha says that a woman who keeps the vow with faith keeps her husband's life and her household's happiness; that is the story's own promise, told as tradition.

The texts behind the story

• Karwa Chauth vrat katha (the stories of Veeravati and of Karwa): oral tradition, printed in many popular vrat-katha booklets; no single source text. Summarised in our own words.
• Mahabharata, Vana Parva, Pativrata-mahatmya Parva, sections 292–298 (the story of Savitri and Satyavan). K. M. Ganguli (tr.), The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa (Calcutta: P. C. Roy, 1883–96), Project Gutenberg volume 1. Public domain in the US; India status not yet confirmed, so summarised, not quoted. (Vana Parva, sections CCLXLII–CCLXLVIII (292–298 in the 1884 printing; the Project Gutenberg e-text numbers them CCLXLI–CCLXLVII))

When it is kept

Karwa Chauth is kept on the Krishna Chaturthi, the fourth tithi of the dark half, that is present at moonrise at your location. In the amanta calendar this is in Ashvin; in the purnimanta calendar of North India the same day is in Kartika. The fast runs from sunrise to moonrise, and the app shows the moonrise time computed for your city. This is the rule used by North Indian panchangs, the same one used for the monthly Sankashti Chaturthi.

The date, from the calendar engine

• Karwa Chauth 2027: Karwa Chauth falls on Monday, October 18, 2027 in Washington DC (computed for this city). The date is the same in New Delhi.

The date depends on your city. Every city we cover is on the year page.

Traditions and regional customs

• North Indian (Punjabi, Haryanvi, Rajasthani, Uttar Pradesh): Krishna Chaturthi at moonrise; fast from sunrise to moonrise
• Purnimanta month name: Kartika Krishna Chaturthi; amanta: Ashvin Krishna Chaturthi
• Rajasthani: worship of Chauth Mata
• Telugu: a related moonrise fast, Atla Taddi, on the Krishna Tritiya a day earlier

Why the day can differ

Moonrise is a local event, so the fast ends at a different clock time in every city, and in some years the tithi holds moonrise on a different date abroad than in India. Families in India and abroad may then keep the fast on different days; the app shows your city's day and, where it differs, India's.

The computed moonrise is for a clear, flat horizon. Hills, tall buildings or clouds can hide the moon for longer. Families differ on what to do then: some wait until the moon is seen, and others break the fast at the computed moonrise time after praying towards the moon's direction. Follow your family's custom. Some families also take the meal of sargi before dawn, and others do not; both keep the same day.

How to keep it at home

1. The day before, many women apply henna (mehndi) and lay out festive clothes and bangles. In Punjabi families the mother-in-law prepares sargi: fruit, dry fruits, sweet vermicelli (pheni), mathri and a drink, eaten before sunrise.
2. After sunrise the fast begins. Through the day many women rest, avoid hard work and, in some families, avoid sewing and cutting. Dress in festive clothes for the evening, often red or bridal wear.
3. Prepare the puja plate: a karwa (a clay or metal pot with a spout) filled with water, a lamp, kumkum, rice, sweets, a sieve, and a picture of Gauri with Shiva, Ganesha and Kartikeya, or a simple drawing of the Goddess on the wall.
4. In the evening, women gather at home, with friends or at the temple. An elder tells the vrat katha while everyone holds rice or wheat grains. In Punjabi custom the women sit in a circle and pass their plates around seven times, singing the traditional songs of the day.
5. Many women then give a gift basket (baya) of sweets, mathri and clothes to the mother-in-law or another elder, and touch her feet for her blessing.
6. When the moon rises, go where it can be seen. Offer it water from the karwa (arghya) with a prayer, look at the moon, often through the sieve with a lamp beside it, and then look at your husband. He gives the first sip of water and the first bite of food, and the fast is broken.
7. Abroad, check the moonrise time for your city in the app and plan the evening around it. Many families also join relatives in India by video call, though India's moon rises at a different time.

Fasting

The strictest custom is a nirjala fast: no food and no water from sunrise to moonrise, after a pre-dawn sargi. Many women drink water, tea or milk, or eat fruit during the day, and this is a full and valid way to keep the vow in many families. Anyone who is pregnant, nursing, diabetic, unwell, elderly or on regular medicine should not keep a waterless fast, and should talk to a doctor before fasting at all.

Food

Sargi is fruit, dry fruits, sweet vermicelli (pheni or seviyan), mathri, coconut water or milk. The evening puja plate carries mathri, sweets and the karwa. After moonrise the family eats a festive meal together, often puri, a potato curry, chole, dahi bhalla, kheer or halwa.

For children

On Karwa Chauth many mothers, and some fathers too, keep a fast all day and pray for their family. In the evening the whole family waits for the moon. When it comes up over the roofs, they say a prayer, offer the moon a little water and then share a happy meal. It is a day to say thank you for each other.

Something to do together

Find the moonrise time in the app, then watch from a window together and call out when you see the moon. Draw what it looked like, and paint a small clay pot as a karwa for the puja plate.

Sources

• Panchang engine rule karva-chauth (packages/panchang/data/festivals.json), with its sources and the moonrise convention recorded in packages/panchang/KNOWN_DIFFERENCES.md (disc centre at the geometric horizon).
• K. M. Ganguli (tr.), The Mahabharata, Vana Parva, sections 292–298 (Savitri). Public domain in the US; India status unconfirmed.
• Wikipedia, "Karva Chauth" (background on the fast from sunrise to moonrise and where it is kept).

Related guides

• Vat Savitri
• Hartalika Teej