Gangaur Festival in Jaipur

Jaipur the capital city of Rajasthan houses a number of festivals all round the calendar. Like all other festivals in India, the festivals in Jaipur are colorful and vibrant. Gangaur Festival in Jaipur is very famous. It is one of the most important and widely celebrated traditional festivals of Rajasthan.

The Gangaur Festival in Jaipur devoted to Goddess Parvati, the consort of Lord Shiva. This festival starts on the day following Holi and continues for about 2 weeks. This festival is done in the honor of ‘Gauri’ who is considered as the symbol of virtue and fidelity and a mythological role model of married women. The married women worship Gauri for the welfare of their husbands while the single girls worship her for being blessed with a spouse of their choice. The Gangaur Festival starts with the rite of accumulating ashes from the Holika Dahan (Holi Fire) and burying seeds of wheat and barley in it. The seeds are watered regularly after that until the germination takes place. This ritual is accompanied with the songs praising Ishwar and Gauri and the carrying of painted water pots on women heads. Unmarried girls’ overshoot singing songs of ghudlia while carrying earthen pots having numerous holes all around with a lamp lit aside on their hands on the evening of the 7th day after Holi. They also gather small gifts like cash, sweets, jaggery, ghee, oil etc on their way. All these rituals are carried on while chanting hymns to the Goddess. The Gangaur Festival continues for 18 days ending with the arrival of Lord Shiva to escort his bride home. This is accompanied by a grand procession with the idol of Gauri beautifully placed in gold and silver palanquin, dressed up elephants, camels, horses, dances, drummers & joyous children, who run through the city streets. The procession closes with the girls breaking their pots and casting off all the consignment into a tank or a pond.

Gangaur Festival in Jaipur is a very colorful festival where the local people take an active part. Come here in Jaipur during Gangaur Festival and get into the festive mood.