Hartalika Vratam The third day of the bright fortnight of Bhadrapada, kept by women of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Nepal for Shiva and Parvati.
The name
The same day, written in each of the six scripts this app keeps
- English
- Hartalika
- मराठी
- हरतालिका
Only the names actually in use are listed. A blank script is not an omission: the day may simply not be kept there, or be kept under a different festival's name.
UTC+5:30
The date of a festival depends on the place: a tithi that ends at dusk in Chennai can still be running at dusk a thousand kilometres west, which moves the day. Sunrise and sunset here are computed for the place above.
When it falls next
Looking for the calendar this day belongs to
This day does not fall again in the next three years at this place. A few days are tied to the solar month rather than to the civil year, so a year can hold two of them or none.
What the day is
The third day of the bright fortnight of Bhadrapada, kept by women of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Nepal for Shiva and Parvati. Sand or clay images of the two are made and worshipped through the night with songs; the name remembers Parvati's friends carrying her away into the forest so that she could choose Shiva herself.
- Deity
- Parvati, Shiva
- Kind
- Vratam Days kept by a fast or a vow, most of them coming round every lunar month.
The hour
The rule in words
Bhadrapada Shukla Tritiya at sunrise; the puja is at night and the fast is given up the next morning.
The fast
One of the hardest fasts kept: no food and no water from the previous evening through the whole day and night, broken only after the morning puja of the Chaturthi.
Where the regions differ
Nepal keeps it as Teej with the red saris at Pashupatinath; the Deccan keeps the same tithi as Gauri Habba and Hartalika with a lighter fast; the far south does not keep it. Maharashtra and Goa keep Hartalika on the eve of Ganesh Chaturthi, with small images of Shiva and Parvati made of sand or of shadu clay and a night of songs before them.
Every date here is computed from the Sun and Moon for the place entered, by the rule printed beside it. A printed panchangam can differ by a day where an almanac reads a tithi at a different instant, and a family's own custom always comes first. Where the practice genuinely varies, the text says so rather than choosing for you.