Mahendranagar, 7 September

Gaura festival is being celebrated with great enthusiasm today in Sudurpaschim Province. This year, due to the date change, Gaura is being celebrated twice.

Those who did not celebrate the Gaura festival on the 7th of August are celebrating Gaura with pomp today. Bhadrashukla Paksha begins on the first day of this festival, which starts with placing biruda (five types of grains and pulses) in the house. The first day is also called Biruda Panchami.

It is a tradition to cover a copper vessel with cow dung, sprinkle it with Akshata, and soak the five-grain maas, kalau, wheat, wheat, and gurus in it to make biruda. Biruda is considered an offering to Gauri. Biruda is also used in the worship of Gauradevi. After observing the fast of Putrada Ekadashi, the Gaura festival starts formally from Biruda Panchami in the month of Vadu.

Biruda is also distributed to the devotees as prasad. For worshiping Gaura, five plants Kush, kaas, sama (sau), titepati, and apamarga, and sometimes even sesame plants are used to make the shape of the goddess. Deuda culture expert singer Nandkrishna Joshi said that it is a tradition to bring the goddess made in this way to a clean house in the village on the day of Vadau Krishna Ashtami and worship it on fasting. It is customary for the village hero to bring in the goddess. It is believed that no one should see it when it is brought in like this.