Women celebrating Teej festival today

By A Staff Reporter,Kathmandu, Sept. 6: Both married and unmarried women are celebrating Haritalika Teej, the biggest festival of the women across the nation on Friday.

The women will fast the whole day wishing for a prosperous life, perpetual luck and happiness for their families and children.

The festival, which was limited to the women of the Brahmin and Kshatriya castes in the past, is now marked by women belonging to other ethnic groups as well. 

Teej is a three-day long festival-- Dar Khane (feasting day), Teej (the fasting day) and Rishi Panchami.

The women feast on the second day of Bhadra Krishna Paksha and fast even without drinking water the next day, which is called Haritalika Teej, the main festival associated with Goddess Parvati.

Teej has religious importance as it is the day of celebration of the reunion of Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati.

A day before Teej, on the night of the second day of the fortnight, women enjoy a variety of delicacies known as Dar in Nepali at their parental homes where they are especially invited for the Teej festival.

The Pashupati Area Development Trust (PADT) is ready to welcome hundreds of devotees on the day of Teej.

All preparations for this year’s Teej have been completed, PADT said at a press meet on Thursday.  

To manage the crowd of fasting women, the Pashupati Area Development Trust (PADT) has completed the preparations.

Rewati Raman Adhikari, the spokesperson for PDAT, speaking at a press meet held on the premises of PADT, said that the PADT would provide better facilities and manage the crowd during the festival.

The officials of the PADT stated that it was ready to welcome tens of thousands of devotees on the day of Teej. PADT will mobilise police personnel to manage the crowd of devotees and provide security to them. Security personnel from the Nepal police, Armed Police Force, other security organs and volunteers will be mobilised at the Pashupati area on the day.

All four gates of the temple will open at 3 am on Friday and they will remain open all day except during the time of Shreeyantra pooja and Mahabhog. The north, south and east gates of the temple shall be opened for entrance and the western gate shall be used for exit. 

Security, health care service, drinking water and restrooms will be managed by PADT, the officials said. 

He also asked visitors not to wear valuable ornaments while visiting Pashupatinath on that day. “Thieves and pickpockets take advantage of the crowd and steal cash or snatch jewelry. So, we advise everyone to avoid having expensive jewels on them.”

The devotees will be grouped into four lines, and arrangements have been made to allow the people to enter the temple in an orderly manner, Adhikari said.

Vehicle parking will be managed at the open area of Tilganga Eye Hospital side, the ground of Sifal, the open area at Guheshwori and the PADT office premises. 

On the day of Teej, women are adorned in red sari, and red bangles with red vermilion power in their forehead. 

Meanwhile, the Kathmandu District Administration Office (CDO) has banned the sale of meat, alcohol and intoxicants around the Pashupati Temple on the day of Teej.

Issuing a press note on Wednesday, it informed that the sale of meat, alcohol and intoxicants had been prohibited in the Pashupati area to maintain religious and cultural dignity and sanctity including security.

Production, sale, transportation, storage and consumption of narcotics and narcotic substances have been completely banned effective from September 4, read the statement.