Next: 3 Sept 2027
Hartalika Teej
Women fast a full day, some without water, in red or green sarees, remembering Parvati's penance to win Shiva.
What is worn for Hartalika Teej
Hartalika Teej falls on the third day of the bright fortnight of Bhadrapada, the day before Ganesh Chaturthi. The name recalls the story of Parvati, whose friends took her into the forest so that she would not be married to another, leaving her free to do penance to win Shiva. Women keep a strict fast, in some families without water, and worship clay images of Shiva and Parvati through the day and night. They dress in new sarees, with red, green and the colours of a bride favoured, and wear bangles and henna. It is kept in north India, in Maharashtra and Karnataka as the Gowri festival, and in Nepal as the main Teej.
The sarees
Written by the EveryPallu desk with AI assistance. Background: "Teej" on Wikipedia. Customs differ from place to place and family to family. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Sari: Suyash.dwivedi, CC BY-SA 4.0, source