Are you aware of one of the most celebrated festivals of Rajasthan – GANGAUR? The festival attracts several tourists every year to witness the grandeur and royalty of Rajasthan along with the famous traditional folk music and rich desi culture.
Gangaur Festival 2024 Dates?
Gangaur celebration takes place in the month of March or April, starting from a day after Holi and continuing for eighteen days. For this year 2024, Gangaur will be celebrated on the 11th of April (Thursday) and the daily worship starts on the 25th of March and continues till the 11th of April.
For more information about Panchang and Choghadiya Muhurat for the Gangaur Festival: Here
In addition, Holi is another famous festival that is celebrated with great excitement in Rajasthan.
Why is Gangaur Festival Celebrated & Gangaur Puja Done?
Gangaur Festival is all about worshiping Goddess Gauri and her followers. On the auspicious occasion of Gangaur women either married or unmarried keep fasts to adore the pious bond of love and marriage. Married women pray for the growth and well-being of their husbands while unmarried women urge Goddesses to find them a good better half.
Gangaur is a festival of grace, colors, traditions, and beauty. One of the amazing factors about Gangaur is that members of the royal families of Rajasthan also participate in festivities along with the general public. So, during Gangaur you will come across the true essence of Rajasthan.
People of Rajasthan celebrate Gangaur with great enthusiasm and zeal. Thousands of tourists including foreigners visit Rajasthan to witness the magnificent festival of Gangaur.
What is the Significance of the Gangaur Festival?
Gangaur represents Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati together. Gana signifies Lord Shiva and Gauri is the name of Goddess Parvati. So, now we know how the mix-matching of names started.
The tradition behind this festival is extreme devotion and dedication shown by Goddess Gauri to win Lord Shiva’s love. Seeing her affection towards him, Shiva got fascinated and married Gauri.
Later Gauri visited her maternal home and blessed her friends with marital bliss and stays for 18 days, on the day of farewell large celebration took place, and Shiva down to take her home.
How are Gangaur Festival Celebrated & Rituals Performed?
The first and foremost tradition of Gangaur is collecting ashes from the Holy fire in earthen pots (Kunda) and sowing seeds of wheat and barley in them. After seven days women make colorful idols of Gauri and Isar (Shiva and Parvati) while enchanting Rajasthani folk songs. In some families’ idols are preserved for years and on auspicious occasions, they are decorated and painted.
A rally is taken out by the unmarried girls with a diya placed inside an earthen pot called Ghudlia on the evening of the seventh day. While roaming around girls are blessed with small gifts like sweets, Jaggery, little currency, ghee or oil, clothes, and Jewellery.
This continues for the rest of the days and on the last day of the festival earthen pots are broken. For all 18 days, newlywed women keep fast for the whole day while other women keep fast by eating a single time in a day.
In the last three days, the festive vibe has reached its peak. These days’ women put up their best by dressing up, putting on jewelry, adorning their hands with Heena (Mehandi), and also decorating their idols for Gangaur Puja. Sinjara is sent by the parents of married women it consists of sweets, clothes, jewelry, and other decorative items for their daughters.
The final day of Gangaur is grand, several tourists and locals gather to witness the procession or parade of large no of women carrying Gauri and Isar idols on their heads to the lake, river, or garden, and farewell to Gauri and Isar is bided by immersing their idols in the water.
Processions are quite colorful and enriched with Rajasthani cultural folk songs and dance. Many local bands also join the parade. Gangaur is celebrated in the entire Rajasthan, but one can have the most heart-throbbing experience of Gangaur in Jaipur, Udaipur, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, and Bikaner.
5 Best Places in Rajasthan Where Gangaur is Celebrated:
Hey there! We have picked out some of the best cities where the Gangaur Festival is celebrated with loads of joy. Would you like to know which cities they are?
1. Udaipur – City of Lakes
If you are touring Udaipur city during the festivities of Gangaur then consider yourself lucky because you are going to witness many different things than usual. Udaipur capital of the Mewar is adorable at this time.
How is Gangaur Celebrated in Udaipur?
The city of the lake has a ghat named after the festival Gangaur. Gangaur Ghat is the shore of Lake Pichola which connects it to a prominent part of the city.
A Reminiscent procession of Gangaur starts from the city palace with members of the royal family and several others with colorful idols, marching towards the lake’s other side in boats to meet the community of another side, continuing the age-old legacy. This magnificent festival is joined by many foreign and local tourists also.
In the wake of a large number of footfalls, the Rajasthan tourism department extended the celebration for three days by introducing the Mewar festival. The festival is made more exciting by hosting competitions like best attire and best idols.
2. Jaipur – The Pink City
In Jaipur city, this colorful procession begins from Zanani Deodhi in the city palace and March through Tripolia market, Chaugan Stadium to the final station Talkatora.
How Gangaur Celebrated in Jaipur?
In the procession, you will find idols kept in palanquins. You can also spot elephants, chariots, and bullock carts enhancing the grandness of the rally. The city also organizes an attractive fair for all 18 days that sells all kinds of souvenirs, and traditional masterpieces; it also consists of delicious Rajasthani cuisine, interesting activities like games, traditional folk music, and dance, and many cultural events.
3. Bikaner
In Bikaner also a large number of women participate in grand processions dancing and singing Rajasthani folk songs related to the festival. You can get the best glance at the parade from Junagarh Fort.
4. Jodhpur- The Blue City
Gangaur is named Dhinga Gavar in Jodhpur. Dhinga Gavar is another manifestation of Goddess Parvati. It starts from Poonam (full moon day) of month fagun and lasts till Teej (the third day after the new moon).
How Gangaur festival celebrated in Jodhpur?
Huge processions of the Isar idol are carried out through the markets of Jodhpur whereas Dhinga Gavar idols decorated with typical Rajasthani costumes and gold jewelry are placed at the 11 important spots of the old city Jodhpur.
Women of Pushkarna Brahmin families dress up in fancy dress costumes as Hindu Devi-devtas, police, saints, and patrol the whole night protecting statues of Dhinga Gavar with a stick in hand.
If any young unmarried man comes near the woman and gets bitten by bait (stick) in hand is believed to get married soon. Therefore, the festival is also known as Baintmaar Teej in Jodhpur.
5. Jaisalmer- The Golden City
In Jaisalmer, the festival looks more vibrant as the celebration is done with more importance to the cultural activities such as folk performances, traditional music fiestas, fancy dress events, and much more.
How is Gangaur celebrated in Jaisalmer?
Processions are more royal in Jaisalmer as it takes place inside the fort accompanied by colorfully decorated elephants, camels, traditional folk dancers, and singers. The royal family also participates in the parade along with the natives and their idols. Many food fiestas are also arranged specially for the festival.
So, are you ready to enjoy a colorful festival of Rajasthan and tap your feet into the rhythm of Rajasthani traditional folk music? Be prepared to witness the grandness and royalty of the state during Gangaur 2024. Don’t forget to try all the finger-licking dishes of Rajasthan. Rajasthan state enriched with rich culture and grace awaits to welcome you.
Gangaur Festival at a Glance:
Explore India’s beautiful culture:
Like Gangaur there are many festivals in different parts of India, which are not very popular still they have unique features, such as the Pushkar fair – the camel fair of Rajasthan. These festivals are worth witnessing once in a lifetime. Here are 30 Lesser-Known Festivals Of India You Should Experience Once.