Feature
Karwa Chauth 2017 : significance, rituals and history of the festival
Lucknow : The festival of Karwa Chauth is celebrated by married Hindu women across Northern India. This year, the festival will be celebrated on October 8, 2017. As per the Hindu calendar, the festival falls during the Krishna Paksha Chaturthi in the month of Kartik.
On this day, married women fast until moonrise. They offer their prayers to the moon, before ending the fast.
Why is Karva Chauth celebrated?
According to Mahabharata, Karva Chauth can be traced back to the time when Savitri begged the god of death, Lord Yama, for her husband’s soul.
Another episode in the epic states that when Arjuna went to the Nilgiris to pray and meditate for a few days, leaving the rest of the Pandavas and Draupadi behind, his wife got worried and she sought Lord Krishna’s help. He advised her to fast for Arjuna’s well-being and reminded her how goddess Parvati did the same for Shiva’s safety. Draupadi adhered to the fast, observing all its rituals carefully and soon Arjuna returned home.
The festival is also associated with wheat-sowing time or the beginning of the rabi crop-cycle, which is probably why Karva Chauth is observed in most agriculture-dependent regions like Rajasthan, Punjab, western UP, etc.
Why is it called Karva Chauth?
The festival falls on the fourth day of the Hindu luni-solar calendar. ‘Karva’ means earthen pots used to store wheat and ‘chauth’ means the fourth day. Woman buy new earthen pots a few days before the festival and decorate it with beautiful designs and put new bangles, sweets, and make-up items inside them. They would then visit other women and exchange the karvas.
Rituals :
Women rise early and start their day with sargi, a meal prepared by their mother-in-law. After this meal, they don’t consume any food or water till moonrise. Women also pray to Lord Shiva, Goddess Parvati and Lord Kartik. In the evening, women perform a puja, offer foods to the deities and pray for the safety and longevity of their husbands.
When the moon has been spotted, women will look at the moon and their husbands through a sieve, and the men will offer their wives water to break their fast.
What is sargi?
According to the rituals, the mother-in-law presents a thali called sargi for her daughter-in-law, mostly consisting of eatables like mithai, matthri, dry fruits, coconut and gifts like saris and jewellery.
May God bless them who live their entire life in the name of their partners .
Happy Karwa Chauth
The State Scores Extra High on Gaming-Friendly Industry Index
Meghalaya scored 92.85 out of 100 possible points in a Gaming Industry Index and proved to be India’s most gaming-friendly state following its recent profound legislation changes over the field allowing land-based and online gaming, including games of chance, under a licensing regime.
The index by the UK India Business Council (UKIBC) uses a scale of 0 to 100 to measure the level of legalisation on gambling and betting achieved by a state based on the scores over a set of seven different games – lottery, horse racing, betting on sports, poker, rummy, casino and fantasy sports
Starting from February last year, Meghalaya became the third state in India’s northeast to legalise gambling and betting after Sikkim and Nagaland. After consultations with the UKIBC, the state proceeded with the adoption of the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Act, 2021 and the nullification of the Meghalaya Prevention of Gambling Act, 1970. Subsequently in December, the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Rules, 2021 were notified and came into force.
All for the Tourists
The move to legalise and license various forms of offline and online betting and gambling in Meghalaya is aimed at boosting tourism and creating jobs, and altogether raising taxation revenues for the northeastern state. At the same time, the opportunities to bet and gamble legally will be reserved only for tourists and visitors.
“We came out with a Gaming Act and subsequently framed the Regulation of Gaming Rules, 2021. The government will accordingly issue licenses to operate games of skill and chance, both online and offline,” said James P. K. Sangma, Meghalaya State Law and Taxation Minister speaking in the capital city of Shillong. “But the legalized gambling and gaming will only be for tourists and not residents of Meghalaya,” he continued.
To be allowed to play, tourists and people visiting the state for work or business purposes will have to prove their non-resident status by presenting appropriate documents, in a process similar to a bank KYC (Know Your Customer) procedure.
Meghalaya Reaches Out to a Vast Market
With 140 millions of people in India estimated to bet regularly on sports, and a total of 370 million desi bettors around prominent sporting events, as per data from one of the latest reports by Esse N Videri, Meghalaya is set to reach out and take a piece of a vast market.
Estimates on the financial value of India’s sports betting market, combined across all types of offline channels and online sports and cricket predictions and betting platforms, speak about amounts between $130 and $150 billion (roughly between ₹9.7 and ₹11.5 lakh crore).
Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Delhi are shown to deliver the highest number of bettors and Meghalaya can count on substantial tourists flow from their betting circles. The sports betting communities of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana are also not to be underestimated.
Among the sports, cricket is most popular, registering 68 percent of the total bet count analyzed by Esse N Videri. Football takes second position with 11 percent of the bets, followed by betting on FIFA at 7 percent and on eCricket at 5 percent. The last position in the Top 5 of popular sports for betting in India is taken by tennis with 3 percent of the bet count.
Local Citizens will Still have Their Teer Betting
Meghalaya residents will still be permitted to participate in teer betting over arrow-shooting results. Teer is a traditional method of gambling, somewhat similar to a lottery draw, and held under the rules of the Meghalaya Regulation of the Game of Arrow Shooting and the Sale of Teer Tickets Act, 2018.
Teer includes bettors wagering on the number of arrows that reach the target which is placed about 50 meters away from a team of 20 archers positioned in a semicircle.
The archers shoot volleys of arrows at the target for ten minutes, and players place their bets choosing a number between 0 and 99 trying to guess the last two digits of the number of arrows that successfully pierce the target.
If, for example, the number of hits is 256, anyone who has bet on 56 wins an amount eight times bigger than their wager.
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