Hariyali Teej
The green Teej — the third tithi of bright Shravana, when the monsoon has broken and Parvati is held to have won Shiva.
Where it is kept Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab; as Shravan Teej in parts of the north.
When it falls
Computed from the Moon's elongation from the Sun. The civil day is the one carrying the tithi running at sunrise.
Overview
Hariyali is greenness, and the name is literal — the festival falls after the first substantial rain, when the plain has turned. Women wear green, put on mehndi, and swing: the jhoola hung from a tree is not decoration but the central image of the day, and the Teej songs are swing songs.
Married women often return to their parents' house for it, and are sent back with sindhara — sweets, bangles, mehndi, clothes. The fast is kept by many for the husband's long life, and by unmarried girls for a good marriage.
Where it comes from
The story is Parvati's: a hundred and seven births of austerity before Shiva accepted her in the hundred and eighth, on this tithi. It is told in the Shiva Purana's Rudra Samhita, and it is the same narrative that underlies Hartalika Teej a month later and Gangaur in the spring.
The three Teejs — Hariyali in Shravana, Kajari a fortnight later, and Hartalika in Bhadrapada — form a monsoon sequence, and their observances overlap heavily. Which one a family keeps is largely a matter of region.
Why it matters
It marks the arrival of the monsoon in the ritual calendar of the north Indian plain, which for an agricultural society is the most consequential event of the year. The greenness in the name is the crop.
Like Gangaur, it belongs to women and needs no priest. The swing, the songs and the mehndi are the whole apparatus.
How to celebrate
- Hang the swing and use itThe jhoola is the festival's own image; the songs exist to be sung on it.
- Wear green, and put on mehndiThe colour is the name of the day.
- Send or receive the sindharaThe exchange between the parental and marital household is the social content of the festival.
- Offer the puja to Shiva and Parvati as a pairThe narrative is about the two of them; the worship follows it.
What to avoid
These are not all the same kind of thing. Some are prohibitions from a named text, some are Indian law, some are practical, and some are a confusion worth not repeating. Each item says which it is.
- Do not keep the fast without water in monsoon heat if you are unwellPractices vary from nirjala to fruit-only; the strict form is not obligatory.
- Do not hang the swing from a weak or wet branchA plain safety point about the one physical act of the day.
- Do not confuse it with Hartalika TeejThat is Bhadrapada Shukla Tritiya, a month later, and its fast is stricter.
Where this comes from
Everything above is either computed by this site’s own panchang engine, or drawn from the works listed here. Where a custom is modern, commercial or contested, the page says so rather than presenting it as ancient.
- Shiva Purana, Rudra Samhita, Parvati Khanda, for the narrative of Parvati's austerity and Shiva's acceptance.
- The Teej song repertoire of Rajasthan and Braj is oral; the observance has no prescriptive text of its own.
Dates are computed for the place named above and will differ elsewhere. Regional traditions vary; where two reckonings are in use, both are named rather than one being chosen silently.
Other festivals
All festivals, with dates for any year · The calendar on the home page