What to Send as Gifts for Karwa Chauth
Dec 22, 2023
On the occasion of Karwa Chauth, you can make it special for your loving wife and husband by sending them gifts. It is the day to celebrate love where the wives keep a fast for their husbands. This article can guide you with the ways in which you can celebrate the day and also learn its significance. Read this article to know more in detail.
Karwa Chauth is one of the most popular one-day festivals celebrated by Hindu women in North India, Gujarat, and parts of Pakistan. On this auspicious occasion, married women keep fast from sunrise to moonrise and pray for their husband’s long life and prosperity. As the name signifies, Karwa means a clay pot and Chauth corresponds to the fourth day after the full moon. This festival is observed on the fourth day after the Full Moon in the Kartik month of the Hindu calendar. Karwa Chauth is also a social function where people gather and meet with friends and relatives, exchange Karwa Chauth gifts, and share home-cooked food and sweets.
Women apply mehendi on their hands and legs in the morning. In the evening before breaking the fast, women dress up in Indian traditional clothes, usually a red or pink sari, lehenga choli, or salwar kameez embroidered with zaris or sequins. Whereas new brides often wear their bridal costumes. All deck up in jewelry and decorative bindis on the forehead. Women from the neighborhood gather and narrate mythological stories about the significance of the Karwa Chauth.
Married women buy new karwas, the round-shaped clay pots, and design them with various colors. Inside the pots, they put bangles, ribbons, sweets, chunri, bindis, mehndi, sindoor etc. They visit their neighbour’s or relatives’ houses and exchange these Karwas. On this grand festival, parents send Karwa Chauth gifts to their married daughters.
The way of celebrating Karwa Chauth varies from region to region -
Punjab - The festival of Karwa Chauth has great importance amongst the Punjabi women. Seeing the importance and celebration of this festival, the markets get flooded with apparel, decoratives, sweets and accessories ranging from bangles to mehendis to bindis. Artists from various cities such as Agra, Jaipur, Delhi, etc visit here with their special mehndi and designs. Women observe this festival to win the heart of their husband.
Rajasthan - The women of Rajasthan make karwas with clay and fill them with rice and wheat. They wear their wedding-day dress or chunri on this auspicious occasion. They observe this day with the belief that they will not only be blessed with the long life and prosperity of her husband but also will win the same husband for the next seven births.
Uttar Pradesh - Married women decorate the walls of their home with paintings of Gauri Mata, the Moon and the Sun. They make karwa with clay and offer puja with earthen diyas. They keep fast and pray to the figurines at their doorstep for the long-life of their husband.
Apart from these states, women from Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and so on observe this fast with great enthusiasm. Husband, mother and mother-in-law present them with new clothes, jewelry, sweets, etc.
Since this festival is mainly observed by married women, all the symbols that reflect the marriage status of a woman such as jewelry, bangles, mehndi, bindi, sindoor, chunri, and traditional apparel are high in demand. Apart from these, sweets and fenni also are gifted to make the festival more traditional. Sargi and Baya are the two most important gifts without which, the festival of Karwa Chauth is incomplete.
Sargi is one of the very traditional gift items which is believed to bring good luck and prosperity in the lives of the married couple. Mother-in-laws gift ‘Sargi’ to their daughter-in-laws. This sargi is an arrangement of delicious food items which consists of various sweets and snacks. Not only food items, but Sargi also includes apparel and jewelries. These food items are given to the daughter-in-law so that they can eat them before sunrise. For those who live far away from their mother-in-laws, the mother-in-law can opt to send Online Karwa Chauth Sargi to their daughter-in-laws.
In the afternoon of this pious occasion, the mother of the married woman gift ‘Baya’ to her mother-in-law. This Baya is consist of a few Mathris, Almonds, and other items which need to be reached to the house of their daughter before evening. Before breaking the fast puja is offered to Gauri Mata or goddess Parvati. Married women gather and pray to her for their husbands well being and long life. Apart from traditional gifts, mothers send designer clothes, accessories, and cosmetics to their daughters.
