Karwa Chauth Puja Vidhi: Samagri and Steps at Home

The Karwa Chauth puja is a day-long fast from sunrise to moonrise that ends with an evening worship of Gauri, the hearing of the katha, and an offering of water to the moon. In outline: eat sargi before dawn, take a sankalp after bathing, keep the fast through the day, do the Gauri puja and hear the katha in the evening, then see the moon through a sieve, offer arghya from the karwa and break the fast with water from your husband's hand.

The day and the moonrise time for your city are on the Karwa Chauth date page and on moonrise by city; this page does not repeat them, because they change every year and from city to city.

Samagri: what to keep ready

• Karwa: a small spouted pot of clay or metal, with a lid; many women keep two, one to offer and one to exchange
• Water to fill the karwa, and a lota or the karwa itself for the arghya
• A picture of Karwa Mata or Chauth Mata (the printed sheet many families use), or a small clay figure of Gauri
• A chowki or low stool, a red or yellow cloth to cover it
• Roli or kumkum, haldi, akshat (unbroken rice), sindoor, a few flowers
• A diya with ghee and a cotton wick, incense
• Sweets and fruit for the offering; many families make mathri, fenia or halwa-puri
• A chhalni (sieve) for seeing the moon
• A few grains of wheat or rice to hold during the katha
• The baya: a plate of sweets, dry fruit, clothes or a token gift for the mother-in-law
• Shringar items many women wear or offer: bangles, bindi, mehendi, a red or bridal suit or sari

Nothing on this list has to be special or bought for the day. A steel lota does the work of a karwa, and a picture drawn at home is as good as a printed one.

Step by step

1. Sargi, before sunrise. The mother-in-law traditionally sends sargi: fruit, sweets, dry fruit, fenia in milk, sometimes parathas. Eat slowly and drink enough water; the fast begins at sunrise.
2. Bath and sankalp. After bathing, sit facing east, take a little water in the right hand and say in your own words that you are keeping the Karwa Chauth vrat for the wellbeing of your husband and family. Let the water fall to the ground.
3. The day. The day is kept quietly. Many women apply mehendi, meet friends and rest. Families who keep the fast with water or fruit do so from the start; there is no need to decide in the afternoon out of exhaustion.
4. Set up the puja place. Towards evening, clean the puja corner, spread the cloth on the chowki and place the picture of Karwa Mata or the clay Gauri on it. Fill the karwa with water, cover it, mark a swastika on it with roli and tie a thread of mauli round its neck. Place the diya, sweets and the baya beside it.
5. Ganesh first. Light the diya. Offer roli, akshat and a flower to Ganesh, who is remembered first in every puja.
6. Gauri puja. Offer haldi, kumkum, sindoor, akshat, flowers and sweets to Gauri, and remember Shiva, Kartikeya and Ganesh with her. Some families draw the moon, the sun and the karwa on the wall with geru and rice paste and worship the drawing.
7. Hear the katha. Sit with the grains of wheat or rice in your hand and hear or read the Karwa Chauth vrat katha. Keep the grains aside afterwards.
8. The thali round. In Punjabi homes the women pass their thalis round the circle seven times while singing the phera song. In other homes the karwas are exchanged between women, or between daughter-in-law and mother-in-law.
9. The baya. Touch the mother-in-law's feet and give her the baya. Where she is not near, it goes to an elder woman of the family or to a sister-in-law.
10. Moonrise. When the moon is up, go to the roof or a window with the thali. Look at the moon through the chhalni, offer water from the karwa as arghya, with the grains from the katha, and pray. Then look at your husband through the same sieve.
11. Break the fast. The husband offers the first sip of water and the first bite of a sweet. Then the family eats together.

Checking the time

Two times matter: a comfortable evening slot for the puja, and moonrise for breaking the fast. Moonrise differs between cities by many minutes, which is why many sites quote different times; use the moonrise page for your city. Families who like to begin the puja in a good choghadiya can look at the evening choghadiya for their city. If you are keeping the fast for the first time, it helps to know the moonrise in advance so that the wait does not feel endless.

Customs families keep

These are customs, not conditions; your family's own way comes first.

• Many households avoid cutting, sewing and needlework on the day.
• Many women wear red, bridal clothes or their wedding outfit, and avoid black or plain white.
• The sargi is eaten before sunrise, not after.
• The karwa used in the puja is often given away, to the mother-in-law, a priest or a woman in need, rather than reused in the kitchen.
• A first Karwa Chauth after marriage is often kept with the bride's in-laws, and the bride's family sends gifts.
• Women who are pregnant, diabetic, unwell or older keep a gentler fast with water or fruit, and many husbands now fast alongside their wives.

Regional ways

• Punjab and Haryana: sargi from the mother-in-law, the thali phera in a circle, and the moon seen through a sieve.
• Uttar Pradesh: Gauri shaped from clay or cow dung, the wall drawing of the moon and the karwa, and the exchange of karwas.
• Rajasthan: the goddess is worshipped as Chauth Mata; women visit her temples, and the Chauth Mata temple at Barwara draws large crowds.
• Gujarat and Maharashtra name the month the amanta way, so the same Chaturthi falls in Ashvin rather than Kartika; the fast is kept less widely there.

After the puja

Keep the remaining sweets as prasad and share them. The next fast in the season is Ahoi Ashtami, kept by mothers for their children, and if you keep the monthly Chaturthi fast, its story is on the Sankashti Chaturthi katha page.