Love has always got something enchanting about itself. It supplies your brain with some kind of unknown energy that no food in the world can give. This fancy ruddy charm of Love, which is so abstract, has always surfaced with its own kind of twists and complexity, but still managed to be highly searched after in any search engine. The feeling of love is so profound and innate in us that people in love have all the authority to celebrate and beat the drums and get gung-ho about it. And those of us who are not a part of this love struck herd, will always feel the need of such orphic and profound Love on the 14th February. How true!!! But for those who harbor the idea that creating love hoopla for a day is so very naïve and such people are intelligence deficient, then you better think again. February 14th is just a day, but what if celebrating love for about 2 weeks….. it sure is possible. India brings you this challenge, and it may look like, it’s a long party right now but once finishes reading this, you bet it will unveil the toughness that comes along with the delicate mushy love.

For eighteen days during Chaitra (according to the Hindu calendar, which usually falls in March or April) ‘Gangaur’ which is a lengthy Valentine festival, truly soaked in its Indian spirit is celebrated.

Married and unmarried girls have all the right to display their love publicly, which otherwise is not so cool thing to do in India. But contrary to the oh-so-usual way of displaying love, it takes it own tough route. The ladies clan fast for the entire 18 days, and survive by just having one meal in a day. For a newly-wed girl, it is mandatory to observe the full course of 18 days of fasting, which will ensure a successful marriage. Even unmarried girls fast for the full period of the 18 days, and by sacrificing the food (fasting) they impress Goddess Gauri, and believe that complying with this ritual unmarried girl will find a match of her choice and when the married women observe the same, its for the happiness and long life of their husbands.

As per the historical saga, the word Gangaur is formulated from two words, ‘Gan’ and ‘Gauri’, the former is a synonym for God ‘Siva’ and latter is his ladylove, his wife ‘Parvati’. Gauri or Parvati is regarded as a Goddess for nuptial happiness and bliss, as the symbol of virtue, devotion, fertility and a perfect married woman, because Gauri did hard austerities to please Shiva to marry her. Thus all the maidens and wedded ladies worship her to get good husbands and the welfare, health and long life of their husbands respectively.

This festival of Gangaur is initiated on the following day of Holi festival and carries on for about 2 weeks. During the last three days, at an auspicious hour in the afternoon, procession is taken out to a tank or a well with the images of Isar (Lord Shiva) and Gauri, placed on the heads of married women, singing songs and hymns about the departure of Gauri to her husband’s house. The procession returns after offering water to the image of Gauri, facing opposite to Isar on the first two days, and on the final day, she faces in the same direction as Isar and the procession completes with leaving of all the images in the waters of a tank or a well. This procession is the dramatization of how Gauri finally got her love, after several rejections. A distinct difference between the idols of Teej and Gangaur is that the Idol will have a canopy during the Teej Festival while the Gangaur idol would not have a canopy.

Heena or mehendi is done on the hands in beautiful designs. On the evening of the 7th day after Holi, unmarried girls go around singing songs and carry Ghudlia, earthen pots with a burning lamp inside, on their heads. On their way, they collect small presents of cash, sweets, jaggery, ghee, oil etc. this continues till the end of the Gangaur festival when the girls break their pots and throw the debris into the well or a tank and enjoys a feast with the collection made.
There is uniqueness to this festival in different parts of Rajasthan. In Jaipur, ‘Ghewar’ is especially made as a dessert on the Gangaur Festival along with the grand procession of the image of Gauri from the Palace Gate known as Tripolia to Talkatora. Jodhpur has the fair of ‘lotias’ (small metallic pots), where thousands of maidens bring water and ‘durva’ grass in silver or brass pots or ‘lotias’ or to a place known as Girdikot.

In Nathdwara, the usual 3 days procession lasts for a week. Each day, a particular color is chosen for the dress of the goddess with the last day seeing Gauri dressed in black with golden lace work. In Udaipur, the procession ends at the Pichhola Lake, where idols of Isar and gaur are sent for boating for an hour and then there is majestic display of fireworks on the banks linked to Mewar Festival.

The Girasia tribe, living in Sirohi-Mount Abu region celebrates Gangaur with a modern spunk that cannot be expected in the villages, but then its there and during this month-long festivity of Gangaur, the eligible bachelors and spinsters of the tribe are free to select their life partners and elope with them and that too with the social sanction! Wow!
How auspicious and holy can the celebration of love be? The answer is right here. The purity of this intensity in love detangles all the complexity that it may carry for the rest of the world. The unknown strength that pursues them to forsake food for their love’s well being is so propitious and encouraging in today’s era, where relationships are muddled completely. The grandeur of the festival is enticing indeed, and to its contrast the somber and sober depiction of love, which may lack the flashiness, but still toucheth our souls. True spirit of India.

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