Kajari Teej 2027 — Friday, 20 August 2027

Kajari Teej is the second of the three monsoon Teej festivals. It comes about two weeks after Hariyali Teej, on the Tritiya of the dark half that follows Shravana Purnima. In north India, where months end at the full Moon, this is Bhadrapada Krishna Tritiya; in amanta calendars the same day is Shravana Krishna Tritiya. Because it is kept with more rigour than Hariyali Teej, it is often called Badi Teej, the big Teej, and in Rajasthan it is also known as Kajali Teej or Satudi Teej.

Like the other Teej festivals, it honours Parvati’s devotion to Shiva and is kept by married women for their husbands’ long life and a happy home, and by some unmarried girls hoping for a good marriage. The fast lasts the whole day and is traditionally broken only after the moon has risen, when women offer arghya, water poured towards the moon, and then eat. In many families the fast is broken with sattu, a flour of roasted gram, barley or wheat mixed with ghee and sugar, which is why the day is called Satudi Teej.

The name ties the festival to kajri, a genre of folk song of the rainy season from eastern Uttar Pradesh and the Varanasi and Mirzapur region, which speaks of dark clouds, the longing of separated lovers and the joys of the monsoon. The word is often linked with the dark, kohl-coloured clouds of the season. Women gather to sing kajri through the evening, and the form also entered classical music through the singers of the Banaras gharana, who sing kajri alongside thumri and chaiti.

A distinctive custom in Rajasthan and Marwari families is the worship of Neemdi Mata, the goddess in the form of a neem branch. A small pond is made of clay beside the branch, and women look into the water at the reflection of a lamp, jewellery, a lemon and other auspicious things as part of the puja. The custom is not found everywhere, and each family follows the pattern it inherited.