Celebrating Gangaur 2010 in Bikaner Rajasthan India

Gangaur festival is held every year in the month of March or April. The festival is enthusiastically celebrated throughout Rajasthan including Jaipur, Jodhpur, Udaipur, Jaisalmer, Bikaner and Nathdwara. Gangaur festival is held in the honor of the goddess Parvati. This festival has special significance for women who worship idols of "Gan" & "Gauri" in their houses. Unmarried girls pray for a good spouse, while married girls pray for the long life and good health of their husbands.
Start Date : 18-Mar-2010 End Date : 20-Mar-2010
Venue : bikaner
City : bikanerCountry :India
Gangaur is all about honoring the goddess Gauri. A manifestation of Parvati (Lord Shiva's wife), she represents purity and austerity.

Gangaur signifies Lord Shiva and Parvati together. It's believed that Parvati returned to her parental home during Gangaur, to bless her friends with marital bliss. On the last day, Parvait was given a grand farewell by her loved ones and Lord Shiva arrived to escort her home.

Gangaur festival also witnesses noisy celebrations by the people of Rajasthan. A magnificent and colorful procession is also organized during the festival in which decorated idols of Gan and Gauri are circulated with huge fanfare. On the last day, these idols are immersed in a lake or pond.
Goddess Parvati underwent severe austerities to get married to Lord Shiva. The Gangaur celebration symbolizes the marital happiness achieved by Goddess Parvati through intense determination and dedication.

During the Gangaur festival, married women in Rajasthan pray for a happy married life and for the long life and good health of their husbands. Unmarried women pray for good husbands. The festival also marks the onset of spring season.

Special wooden idols of Goddess Gauri and Lord Shiva are brought for the pujas. The festival begins in the first week of Chaitra month and ends on the fourth day of the bright half of the month. Women worship the idols for the entire fortnight and on the last day the idols are taken out in a colorful procession to be dipped in a nearby water body.

In some areas of Rajasthan, women make the idols of Goddess Gauri and Lord Shiva from clay. In some parts, women mix sand and ash from Holi fire and seeds of wheat and barley are sowed in it. They water it till it germinates. Women gather in groups during the festival and they apply mehandi and sing and dance in the praise of Goddess Gauri and Lord Shiva.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• gan
• gaur
• gangaur
• festival
• rajasthan
• bikaner
• junagarh
• royal
• procession
• women
• gauri
• important
• chaitra
• month