Teej

On Teej, the devotees do not eat and drink the whole day. They first offer worship to Lord Shiva and spend the rest of the day singing and dancing in the temple premises. Men are not allowed to enter the most of Shiva Temples on this day.
Outside Kathmandu valley too, women gather and enjoy the festival by singing and dancing.
Though the women fast throughout the day – refusing to take even a drop of water – Teej brings smiles on the faces of women in the cities and villages.
It is a rare opportunity for many married women in Nepali village to go to their mother’s home due to busy schedules in village farm works. The parents invite their daughters or send someone to bring their daughters to their home a day or two before the festival.
Hindu women across the country celebrate this festival with much fun, the food they eat in the form of “dar” varies from place to place.

The eve (first day of Teej) is called 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) and start dancing and singing devotional songs.
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.

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 and visit nearby Lord Shiva’s temple singing and dancing all the way.

On third day, Women get up early in the dawn and get cleaned and do the puja once again to the diyo and goddess Parvati. The most important part of this puja is a banana and holy basil (Tulsi) leaf. Only after this puja, women take solid food. This third day of Teej is Ganesh Chaturthati.

On the fourth day, 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.
Eating delicious food, popularly called dar, on the eve of Teej, and singing and dancing on the main day are the main features of this festival. On this particular day, the streets of Kathmandu turn into a sea of red with women dressed in red Sarees and Dhoties making their way to Shiva shrines, especially to the Pashupatinath Temple.