Teej Festival of Rajasthan

On board Shatabdi Express 9.8.2010, 9 am.

Teej Festival Rajasthan Parishad

Teej is one of the most widely celebrated festivals of Rajasthan. Swings, traditional songs and dancing are the unique features of Teej celebrations in Rajasthan. Women perform traditional folk dance dressed in green colored clothes and sing beautiful Teej songs while enjoying their sway on swings bedecked with flowers.

Teej is celebrated with immense fun and fanfare in most of the towns of Rajasthan. On this day, women and young girls wear their best clothes and adorn themselves with fine jewelry. They gather at a nearby temple or a common place and offers prayers to Goddess Parvati for well-being of their husband.

On the occasion of Teej, markets in cities and villages are stocked with trendiest women accessories and clothes. Most of the fabric clothes display laheria (tie and dye) prints. Sweet shops keep different Teej sweets but ghewar is the main sweet of the season. At some shops malpuas are also prepared in great quantities.

All over Rajasthan, swings are hung from trees and decorated with fragrant flowers. Women both married and unmarried love to swing on these swings to celebrate the 'sawan Festival'.

Teej procession of Jaipur not just attracts visitors from India but also lures a large number of international tourists. High point of Teej procession is the magnificently decorated idol of Goddess Parvati which is kept on a palanquin and carried through the Pink City of Jaipur.

Thousands of devotees throng the procession which is carried out for two consecutive days. Antique gilt palanquins, bullock carts pulling cannons, chariots, caparisoned elephants, camels, bands, and dance groups form a part of the grand Teej procession. The palanquin of Goddess Parvati is carried by eight men dressed in red color. Teej procession is a very huge affair which moves through various places in Jaipur. Lot of Teej songs are sung when the procession moves further. Folk artists and performers enchant the crowd with their splendid performance. Some people even dress up like Gods and Goddesses and play various musical instruments. Teej prasad is distributed among the crowd of devotees.

Teej Festival was celebrated at Rajasthan Parishad Bhawan in Tricity with great pomp and show followed by dinner on 8^th August, 2010.

We have around 500 families from Rajasthan and generally participation is very good.

This time, there was gathering of around 350 people. We had around 12 items in the cultural evening. WE normally encourage group participation, therefore, in most of the programmes people from all age group do participate and try to make the evening memorable with their best of performances with lots of hard work in the back ground.

As usual Arpit enthralled audience with his inimical style of Comedy. This time he chose to cracks jokes on different topics instead of single line subject.

Beenu also prompted me to perform with her on stage and she choreographed Rajsthani Dance for both of us on song “Moriya Acchho bolio re adhhi rat ro”. The dance was an instant hit and everybody in the audience was dancing with us. I personally feel that anything done with passion and involvement gives you great satisfaction. Beenu is otherwise also known for her varied cultural and food skills, but to make me dance like her was a great effort by her. She also made it sure that “make up is done by herself” only.

The other events like Ganesh Vandana by kids, Skit on dowry, Solo song, and dances were also highly cheered by the audience.

The occasion was cheered with prize distribution and ended with great recipe of food.