Gangaur
What it is
Gangaur falls on Chaitra Sud 3, the third day of the bright fortnight of Chaitra, in the first blush of the new Samvat year just after Holi. The name joins 'Gan' (Shiva) and 'Gaur' (Gauri, Parvati), and the festival honours Shri Gauri as the giver of saubhagya — marital blessedness. For some sixteen days beginning the day after Holi, girls and married women worship images of Gauri and Isar with songs, sprouted wheat, flowers and processions: unmarried girls praying for a good husband, married women for the wellbeing of theirs.
Though celebrated most famously in Rajasthan, Gangaur belongs also to Vraj, Malwa and parts of Gujarat. In Nathdwara — Shrinathji's own town in Mewar — it is kept with great colour and joy, its processions moving through the same lanes that lead to the haveli, while the whole season rings with the spring songs of Chaitra. It is a festival of the earth waking after winter: of new grain, new clothes, swings and song, all offered first to the Devi who blesses homes with harmony and love.
Why we observe it
In Pushtimarg everything of the land — its seasons, songs and festivals — is gathered into Prabhu's leela, and Gangaur is seen with the eyes of Vraj. The Bhagavat tells how the maidens of Vraj worshipped the Devi with one prayer hidden in their hearts: that Shri Krishna himself, the son of Nanda, should be their beloved. That is the bhav a Vaishnav brings to Gangaur: beyond every worldly saubhagya stands the one imperishable saubhagya — sambandh with Prabhu, which no circumstance can take away. Gauri is honoured as the giver of that blessing too, for bhakti itself comes through the grace of those who love Prabhu.
So while the town celebrates with processions and songs, the Vaishnav's Gangaur is an inward prayer: may my heart's varan be of Shrinathji alone, and may my seva-saubhagya remain unbroken through every season of life. The spring songs sung in these weeks carry exactly that sweetness — festivity without, and within, the gopi's single-minded love. A Vaishnav joins the colour of the festival gladly, and quietly turns its every prayer toward the lotus feet of Prabhu.