Let’s explore the significance behind the traditional festival of Hariyali Teej in married womens’ life!
When the monsoon clouds hug the earth and the aroma of damp soil blends with the smell of flowers in bloom, it’s time for one of the most romantic festivals for Indian married women — Hariyali Teej. Hariyali Teej, or the “Green Teej” as literally called, is observed in the month of Shravana when nature dons her emerald attire. It is a tribute to the sacred marriage of Goddess Parvati and Lord Shiva, and they represent love, marital happiness, as well as the never ending love a wife has in her heart for her husband.
For each married woman, this festival is no mere ritual. Instead, it’s a celebration of her relationship, her hopes, and her prayers for a long, happy, and prosperous married life. Today, in this blog created by our team at Wedding Affair, we will learn everything that is needed to know about this eternal festival.
The Legend that Inspires Eternal Love
The essence of Hariyali Teej lies in the beautiful tale of Goddess Parvati’s devotion. It is believed that Parvati, after countless years of penance and unwavering faith, was finally united with Lord Shiva as her consort on this auspicious day. Her determination and pure love symbolise the strength of a woman’s heart that is resilient yet tender, patient yet passionate. Married women keep fasts and carry out rituals on Hariyali Teej to seek this divine grace. They wish for their husbands’ good health, long lives, and happiness. The legend turns into a living force, whispering in the ear of each wife that love is patient, true, and strong enough to shake even the gods.
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A Day of Beauty, Colour, and Romance
Hariyali Teej is not only a matter of fasting and prayer; it is a celebration that envelops all women in hues of gaiety and romance. Married women put on beautiful green sarees, glass bangles, intricate mehndi designs, and exquisite jewellery. Green, the shade of life and fecundity, symbolises the verdant monsoon and the newness of a love that remains eternal. This day releases the latent poet and lover within each woman. She gazes at her beau with fresh hopes in her eyes, caressing the tie that binds her to him. Husbands, also, shower wives with flowers and gentle gestures, rekindling romance in the gentle showering of July rains.
The Fasting that Speaks of Love and Devotion
One of the loveliest things about Hariyali Teej is the Nirjala Vrat that is a strict fast where women do not even have water until they make offerings to Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati. This isn’t regarded as a burden, but a letter in silence, a promise that says, “May you be healthy and happy for all your future years.” Women congregate in large numbers, singing old Teej songs, dancing on swings hanging from giant trees, and narrating religious tales of love and separation. It also becomes a celebration of sisterhood, where each wife feels loved and supported in her role.
A Prayer for a Lifetime of Togetherness
For married women, Hariyali Teej is particularly important. It is the very first festival post marriage that enables her to make a wish for a happy married life, sealing the newfound union with love, faith, and blessings of the elderly. Elders bless their daughter-in-law, and mothers send presents in the form of Sindhara with clothes, bangles, sweets, and love, reminding their daughters that though they are in a new home, they are never alone.
Strengthening the Threads of Love
In this fast paced world today, where life whizzes by in a flash, Hariyali Teej comes as a break — a time to hold hands, to gaze into each other’s eyes, and recall why they picked one another. It teaches couples that living together is not marriage but growing together, season after season, monsoon after monsoon. It is this romanticism of Hariyali Teej that keeps it alive, even among contemporary couples who can be thousands of miles away from where they grew up but somehow find it necessary to celebrate the day perhaps by fasting together, exchanging gifts, or simply looking back at their journey of love so far.
A Celebration Beyond Rituals
Hariyali Teej, in essence, is an appeal that marriage is a garden and it requires nurturing, tolerance, belief, and most of all, love. It beckons all married women to flower like the monsoon flowers, to sway like the vines that go dancing with the rain, and to plant the love that grows with every passing year. So when the rain falls this July 27th, 2025, let every married woman look up at the sky, let her smile carry the secret prayers she holds for her beloved, and let her bangles sing of a love that is timeless like Parvati’s for Shiva, and hers for him.
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May each Hariyali Teej bring home to us that pure love, like the rains of monsoon, rejuvenates the spirit and makes the garden of marriage eternally verdant
