Hindu women would celebrate their religious festival of Teej on Tuesday. This festival is celebrated by Hindu women every year to welcome rainy season as well as to meet their old friends and recall their childhood. According to Hindu mythology, on the day of Teej, Hindu god Shiva met his goddess wife Parvati after a century since he had been busy in worship.
The actual colours of the festival could be seen in villages of the arid land of the Thar desert – home to majority of Hindus – where rain means life. In the Thar desert, married women visit their parental home to celebrate the festival where swings garlanded with flowers are hanged from the Neem trees, and women meet their old friends, swing, sing, dance and recall the golden childhood days.
To celebrate Teej, married women fast and pray for the long life of their husband to display their tremendous devotion for him. The festival is actually more cultural than religious, in which Hindu women invite their Muslim friends as well. In various localities of the Thar desert, even Muslim shopkeepers decorate their shops and sell special sweets for this festival, and many Muslim families cook special foods and invite their Hindu neighbours on this special occasion.
Though these days single girls also celebrate the festival, Teej is for married women who usually move away to remote villages or towns after getting married. Married women visit their parental home on this festival a few days before it is celebrated, and on the day of Teej, their husband visit them to show his in-laws how much he loves them. “All my three married daughters who are living in other cities are visiting my home, and they have made all arrangements for this festival,” said elderly Krishna.
Women also get their hands decorated with henna and sing special Teej songs, reminiscing playing with their friends when they were children. In Sindh, the festival is celebrated in the month of Saravan or Sawan, which usually falls in early August when monsoon showers bring happiness along with them, and the arid land of the Thar Desert is converted into a lush green carpet. In Karachi, Teej is celebrated in almost every major Hindu temple and the Hindu women in the city make special arrangements for the festival.
Though many cultural Hindu festivals are celebrated inside restricted boundaries due to increasing religious intolerance and extremism, many Hindu festivals are celebrated publicly in the Thar desert. If the government supports these festivals, it could turn out to be a great opportunity for tourism for the people of the drought-hit Thar desert.
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