Fast Facts
Venue:Jaipur, Rajasthan
Significance: Religious Festival
Duration of Festival:2 days
Month of Celebration: July / August
Next Date of Event: 2 0r3 August
Reaching There: Jaipur is easily approachable from Delhi and popular cities of India by Rail, Road and Air.
The Teej Festival heralds the onset of the monsoon and is celebrated all across Rajasthan. The Rajasthanis celebrate the festival to commemorate the marriage of Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati. The women folk of Rajasthan rejoice during the times of festival when they ostentate their jewelery and costumes.
They sing songs of love swinging on the flower bedecked swings hung from the trees. The married women pray for the well being and long life of their husbands. There is a mythological legend associated with the festival which says that in the month, after the new moon of Shravan, Goddess Parvati went to the house of Lord Shiva, her husband, and was united with him. And so women mark the occasion with festivities.
Attractions of Teej Festival
Rajasthani women celebrated Teej with great enthusiasm and reverence. They idolize Parvati for her devotion to her consort. The festivity starts with songs and dances praising Parvati for her love and devotion. The occasion is a perfect time when they can treat and pamper themselves. As if on a ramp, the women folks don their costumes and jeweleries. The sight of beautifully clad women is marvelous.
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The cities and villages of Rajasthan are dotted with jhoola, swings, hung from a tree, decorated with leaves and flowers. Ladies and girls form a group of their own and soak themselves in rapture. They adorn their palms with heena, sing songs, dance and swing on the jhoola.
In Jaipur, the general public can even pay their respect to the Goddess when a grand procession is taken out of Teej Mata. This procession starts from the City Palace. The public is delighted to see the exquisitely embellished palanquins, cannons pulled by bullock carts, heavily decorated elephants with silver hoods, horses, camels, brass bands, and group of dancers.
Clad in red colored dress, eight men carry the palanquin of Goddess Parvati. This long procession makes its way through the lanes of old city. People put on their best traditional clothes and horde up the place for that one divine glimpse. Some people can be even traced climbing up trees or terraces to watch the procession marching towards the destination. Many urchins can be seen following the palanquin to have the offerings. Playing of musical instruments and dancing is very common among people.