Latitude, longitude and time zone 13.08, 80.27
Asia/Kolkata · UTC+5:30
The date of a festival depends on the place.
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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
Maharashtra calendar, computed for Chennai
- Friday, 3 September 2027
- Tuesday, 22 August 2028
- Tuesday, 11 September 2029
Where Hartalika falls on the solar year, and how far the date moves between occurrences.
- 2027: 3 Sep
- 2028: 22 Aug, 11 days earlier
- 2029: 11 Sep, 19 days later
The dates, year by year
Maharashtra calendar, computed for Chennai
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.
Significance
The katha of the day says Himavan had promised Parvati to Vishnu on Narada's word, so her friends carried her off into the forest, where she shaped a Shiva lingam from river sand on this Tritiya and kept the whole night awake without food or water until Shiva came and accepted her. That is why the images are still made of sand or clay by the women themselves, and why the fast is waterless and the night is spent awake: each woman does what Parvati did. Married women keep it for akhand saubhagya, an unbroken married life, and girls for a husband of their own choosing, which is the part of the story that the name, harita alika, carried off by a friend, remembers. In Bihar, Jharkhand and eastern Uttar Pradesh it is simply Teej, and custom holds that once a woman begins it she keeps it every year. Maharashtra keeps Hartalika on the eve of Ganesh Chaturthi as a women's and girls' vrat: images of Parvati, her friend and the lingam, made of sand or shadu clay, are worshipped with sixteen kinds of leaves, the patri, and the night is spent in songs and fugdi before the images go to the water next morning.
How it is kept
The puja as a household does it, in order. Tick each step as it is done.
Hartalika: how it is kept
Keep ready
- sand, black clay or river mud for the images
- banana stems, bamboo and flowers for the phulera
- a wooden chauki and a red cloth
- bel leaves, dhatura and aak flowers
- suhag items: sindoor, bangles, bindi, mehndi and a chunri
- a new sari
- a kalash of water and a ghee lamp
- thekua, gujiya and fruit for the prasad
- the Hartalika katha
The steps
0 of 10 done
What is cooked
Nothing is eaten or drunk from the start of the fast to the Chaturthi morning. Bihar and Jharkhand fry thekua and pidukiya, the stuffed gujiya of the east, for the prasad, while Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh offer ghewar, malpua and fruit; the fast is broken with the prasad and water, then puri, sabzi and kheer. Maharashtra's Hartalika is kept with a lighter fast of fruit and upvas food in most homes.
The hour
Clock times for Friday, 3 September 2027 at Chennai
Bhadrapada Shukla Tritiya at sunrise; the puja is at night and the fast is given up the next morning.
The main rite. Bhadrapada Shukla Tritiya holding the sunrise; the main puja is done in the pradosha after sunset with the images made that day, and the watch runs through the night to the Chaturthi morning, when the fast is given up.
| Instant | Time | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Sunrise | 05:58 | the udaya tithi, the tithi running as the sun comes up |
Sunrise 05:58, sunset 18:19, UTC+5.5. These are the instants the rule is read at, not the temple's own puja times, which every temple prints for itself.
The day itself
| What | When | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Tithi | Shukla Thritiyai from previous day 16:51 until 14:20 | then Shukla Chaturthi until next day 12:26 |
| Nakshatra | Hasta until 15:54 | then Chitra until next day 14:50 |
| Rahu kaal | 10:36 to 12:08 (1 h 33 min) | the eighth of the daylight left alone for a beginning |
| Yamaganda | 15:14 to 16:46 (1 h 33 min) | the eighth ruled by Yama, also avoided |
| Gulika | 07:30 to 09:03 (1 h 33 min) | the eighth of Saturn’s son; what is done in it is said to repeat |
| Abhijit | 11:44 to 12:33 (0 h 49 min) | the midday muhurta, good for most things |
| Moonrise | 08:11 | moonset 20:13 |
For Friday, 3 September 2027 at Chennai. A time marked "previous day" or "next day" is on the clock of that day.
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.
What is avoided
No food, no water and no sleep from the start of the fast to the morning puja where the custom is kept whole; the sick and the pregnant keep a lighter form, as traditions allow. A vrat once begun is not dropped in a later year without a reason and a proper closing, the udyapan, and quarrels and black clothes are avoided.
The name
The same day, in every language that has a word for it
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.
In other regions
- Kannada
- Karnataka keeps the same Tritiya as Gauri Habba, bringing Swarna Gauri home and exchanging the bagina among married women, with Ganesha following next morning.
- North India
- Kept hardest in Bihar, Jharkhand, eastern Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, where it is called simply Teej or Teeja, with thekua and the night-long jagran; Rajasthan keeps it after its Kajari Teej of the dark fortnight.
- Maharashtra (the dates above)
- Maharashtra and Goa keep Hartalika with a lighter fast than the north, fruit and milk being allowed in most homes, and the images are immersed on the Chaturthi morning before Ganesha is brought in.
- Nepal
- Nepal keeps Haritalika Teej in red, with the dar feast the night before and the waterless fast danced out at Pashupatinath.
- Goa · Konkani
- In Goa the fast falls on the eve of Chovoth, so the day the women keep without food or water is also the day the house is finished for the largest festival of its year: the matoli is gathered from the forest and its frame tied over the place the idol will sit.
- Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh
- Chhattisgarh keeps it as Teeja and it is the largest women’s day of its year: the married daughters are called home for it a week before, the karu bhaat of bitter greens is eaten the night before, the fast is nirjala, and the state gazettes the day.
The dates above are the Maharashtra reckoning, because that is the calendar this key belongs to. Switch the tradition on the calendar page to see how another one dates the same day.
Greeting
What is said to family and friends on the day
हरतालिकेच्या हार्दिक शुभेच्छाHartalikechya hardik shubhechha
Where this day is kept
Nearest first from Chennai, with what is recorded about each.
Temples of Parvati and Shiva near you
Not recorded for this day in particular: the nearest temples of the day's own gods, for a reader whose own temple is not listed above.
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu · Kapaleeswarar and Karpagambal, with the peacock shrine
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu · Adipureeswarar and Vadivudai Amman with Thyagaraja
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu · Masilamaniswarar with Kodiyidai Nayaki
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu · Adi Kamakshi and Kamakshi, standing on the pancha agni penance
Your family's own temple comes first, and its calendar is the one that decides.
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A temple is listed here only where the gazetteer's own line names this day, or where this day's own entry names the town, or where the day belongs to the ancestors or the nagas and the temple is recorded for that rite. Where neither table says anything, nothing is listed as kept for the day; where fewer than three are, the nearest temples of the day's own gods are added under a heading of their own.
Mantras
The prayers said with the day. Each opens with its words and meaning.
Every date here is computed from the Sun and Moon for the place entered, by the rule printed beside it.
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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.