Celebration of the Kajari Festival
The Kajari Festival is particularly very important to the farmers because it signs the opening of the sowing season for wheat and barley. Kajari Festival is celebrated by the farmers with great enthusiasm and interest. The festival involves certain interesting customs and traditions. The women folk who are blessed with a son are only entitled to perform the rituals involved in the festival. The festival commences on the Shravan Shukla Navami. This day is considered as very auspicious because on this day the womenfolk go to the field to collect the soils in a cup which they store in a dark room for several days.
The rooms of the houses are washed with cow dung and mud in order to make them pure and clean. They are then tastefully decorated with designs made from the rice solutions. The designs are also colored and figures like, a child in cradle, a mongoose or a woman with a pitcher are drawn. The rooms are then closed from all sides to avoid the light and air away from entering the room.
The room is then worshipped by the women for seven days till Kajari Purnima or the full Moon day. During the prayer the women pray for the well-being of their child, their husband and other family members and most importantly for a good harvest. This grand prayer ceremony is held in the evening of the Kajari Purnima with great fanfare and devotion. For the ceremony all the women also observe fast from morning. Then they carry the cup on their head to the pond or any water body and immerse them reciting the names of the goddess.
The Kajari Festival in Chhattisgarh is thus celebrated with great fervor and spirit. The farmers along with their wives celebrate the festival to start sowing to reap a good harvest. The festival of Kajari is observed during the months of July or August. According to the Hindu calendar, the Kajari Festival commences on the ninth day after the Shravan Amavasya.