Kajari Teej

Kajari Teej is also called 'Badi Teej' (the greater Teej), regarded as the counterpart to Shravan's Hariyali Teej, known as 'Chhoti Teej' (the lesser Teej). The festival is observed chiefly by married women seeking their husband's long life and a happy married life, and by unmarried girls seeking a good husband.

The day is also called 'Kajali Teej', since it is the occasion for singing the distinctive 'Kajari' folk songs of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, sung to the beat of the dholak, describing the joys and sorrows of the Sawan-Bhado monsoon season. It is from these very songs that the festival takes its name.

In some regions it is also called 'Satudi Teej', since on this day special dishes are prepared from sattu, a flour of barley, wheat, gram, and rice, mixed with ghee and dry fruits, eaten after moonrise to break the fast.

In the evening, women perform the full solah shringar and shape a small pond-like form from clay and cow-dung against a wall, its rim bound with ghee and jaggery, with a neem twig planted beside it. In this form, Neemdi Mata, a folk form of Parvati, is worshipped, with dots of mehndi, roli, and kajal, and offerings of cloth and thread.

After the worship, arghya is offered to the moon with water, roli, thread, and rice, and holding a silver ring and grains of wheat, the woman turns in place four times. The fast is generally kept waterless, though pregnant women may observe a phalahar fast instead.

Swings are decorated at home, and women gather to swing, dance, and sing Kajari songs together. Cows are also specially worshipped on this day, seven small dough balls topped with ghee and jaggery are fed to a cow before the women themselves eat.