Festival : Teej

Teej is a festival mainly celebrated by Nepali women for the long life of her husband and long and firm relationship between them until the death this life and all the lives to come. Teej is observed for marital happiness, well-being of spouse and children and purification of own body and soul. Teej is the most famous festival among Nepali women where both married and unmarried women take fast for long life of their life partner.

It is celebrated on 3rd day of Bhadra Shukla Paksha according to Nepali lunar calendar. It generally falls in late August or early September. Teej is mainly celebrated for three days. The first day is known as Dar Khane Din. On this day all the family members especially the women, both married and unmarried gather at one place, in their finest outfits of red called Saubhagya. This evening the grand feast takes place. The grand feast is called “Dar”. The fun often goes on till midnight, after midnight the 24-hour fasting starts.

The second day is the main day of Teej (the fasting day). Some women take it very rigid, they even live without a piece of food and drops of water while some others take liquid and fruit. On this day, they happily dress in red, married women wear their lagan ko pote, natthi, other jewelries and chadke tilahari ( jewelries are optional but chadke tilahari, lagan ko pote and natthi is said to be most important) and visit a nearby Lord Shiva’s temple singing and dancing all the way.The most important part of the pooja is mostly done in the evening burning the oil lamp (108 sute batti in a diyo) which should be burning throughout the night. It is a tradition of giving the diyo of teej by her mother in law to the married woman. Women get up early in the dawn and get cleaned and do the pooja once again to the diyo and goddess Parvati. Only after this pooja, women take solid food. 

This third day of Teej is Ganesh Chaturthati. Women eat Karkalo with (puree) food made with pure ghee. The fourth day of the festival is known as Rishi Panchami. After the completion of the previous day's pooja, women pay homage to various deities and bathe with red mud found on the roots of the sacred Datiwan bush, along with its leaves. This act of purification is the final ritual of Teej, after which women are considered forgiven from all their sins. The recent years have witnessed an adjustment in the rituals, especially regarding the strictness, but its spirit remains the same. On this day, the seven sages of the Hindu pantheon are worshiped by women in a belief that it will cleanse all sins of the previous year. Womenfolk take a holy bath with red mud found on the roots of the sacred Datiwan bush, along with its leaves. After three hours of rigorous cleansing, they come out purified and absolved from all sins. After this they sit in a semicircle while a priest sitting in the middle chants devotional prayers.

Teej is a cultural festival in which women dance and sing songs at home, temples and nearby public places. It is a traditional festival where women also express their pains through the lyrics of the songs they sing while dancing.