Gangaur is the most distinctly Rajasthani of all our festivals — a celebration of the divine feminine, of marital love, and of Jaipur's most beloved royal procession. Observed for sixteen days from Holi to Chaitra Shukla Tritiya, it honours Gauri (Goddess Parvati) and Isar (Lord Shiva), whose union represents the perfect marriage. Unmarried girls pray for a worthy match; married women pray for the long life and prosperity of their husbands.
Why it matters to Rajasthanis
In Jaipur, the Gangaur procession winds through the City Palace each year — royal palanquins, women in their finest poshak, songs that have not changed in centuries. Outside Rajasthan, Gangaur becomes a quieter but no less meaningful observance: women carry small idols of Gauri, prepare ghewar, and gather to sing the traditional Gangaur songs that everyone's grandmother knew by heart.
How we celebrate in Australia
The Rajasthani-Australian community holds Gangaur observances each year across Melbourne and Sydney — sometimes in private homes, sometimes as community gatherings. Women dress in traditional poshak, idols of Gauri are decorated and carried, songs from Mewar and Marwar fill suburban living rooms, and the meal that follows is unmistakably Rajasthani. The Rajasthan Foundation Melbourne Chapter supports and amplifies these gatherings; chapter members receive direct invitations.
"Wherever a Rajasthani woman is, Gangaur happens. The procession may be smaller in Australia — but the songs are the same, and the prayer is the same."
Teej is a monsoon festival — or, more precisely, three monsoon festivals across the season. Hariyali Teej welcomes the rains. Kajari Teej celebrates the rich green of the land. Hartalika Teej, the most observed in Rajasthan, falls in the bright half of Bhadrapad and is marked by women fasting for the wellbeing of their husbands and unmarried women praying for a good match.
The three Teejs explained
Hariyali Teej (third day of Shukla Paksha, Shravan) is celebrated with women dressed in green, swings hung from trees, and folk songs that fill every Rajasthani village.
Kajari Teej (third day of Krishna Paksha, Bhadrapad) is observed especially in Bundi and the eastern Rajasthani belt — a quieter, more agricultural celebration.
Hartalika Teej (third day of Shukla Paksha, Bhadrapad) is the most widely observed today, with full-day fasting and prayers to Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati.
How we celebrate in Australia
Teej is one of the Rajasthani-Australian community's most-observed festivals. Across Melbourne and Sydney, women gather in green saris and lehariyas, swings appear in backyards, mehndi is applied, and traditional Teej songs are sung — sometimes by elders who learnt them in their grandmothers' courtyards in Rajasthan. Hartalika Teej fasts are observed widely; community iftars (the breaking of fast) draw extended families together.
Karva Chauth is a one-day fast observed by married women for the long life of their husbands — broken only after sighting the moon through a sieve, then through their husband's face. The fast is unbroken: no food, no water, from before sunrise until moonrise. It falls on the fourth day after the full moon in Kartik, typically in late October or early November.
A note on Australian moonrise
Because the moon rises at different times across Australia — and at substantially different times than in India — Karva Chauth in Australia means recalculating timing each year for each city. Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide each see moonrise at different local times. Many Rajasthani-Australian women break their fast at the local Australian moonrise, while others wait for the moon's appearance in India to feel synchronised with home.
How the chapter helps
The Rajasthan Foundation Melbourne Chapter publishes confirmed Karva Chauth moonrise times for major Australian cities each year, in the days leading up to the festival, on this page and in our News section. For authoritative Hindu Panchang timings any time of year, members can consult their local pandits — we are happy to provide referrals to community priests in Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, Brisbane and Adelaide.
"Australian moonrise can come ninety minutes later than the one in Jaipur. The fast holds. The prayer holds. Only the clock changes."
Every Indian community celebrates Diwali. What makes it Rajasthani is the detail: the Hatri, the ghevar, the silver bought on Dhanteras, the Govardhan Puja the morning after the lights, the Bhai Dooj the day after that. Five days, each with its own rituals, anchored by a Marwari merchant tradition that takes Lakshmi Pujan with absolute seriousness.
The five-day Rajasthani Diwali
Dhanteras (day one) — new purchases, traditionally silver utensils or coins, to invite Lakshmi.
Choti Diwali / Naraka Chaturdashi (day two) — oil baths, smaller diya lighting.
Diwali / Lakshmi Pujan (day three) — the main night. The Hatri — a small clay shrine for Goddess Lakshmi, decorated with sweets and silver — is the distinctly Rajasthani element.
Govardhan Puja / Annakut (day four) — women worship the Govardhan Hill made from cow dung, a tradition particularly observed in the Marwari Vaishnava community.
Bhai Dooj (day five) — sisters apply tilak to brothers, brothers vow lifelong protection.
Sweets that mark a Rajasthani Diwali
Ghevar, mawa kachori, besan ladoo, balushahi, moong dal halwa. Rajasthani sweets are typically richer, more ghee-forward, and less syrupy than the Bengali or South Indian repertoire. Several Rajasthani sweet shops have opened across Melbourne and Sydney over the last decade — a sign of how deep the community has put down roots.
Holi is celebrated across India, but Rajasthan brings particular intensity to it. Holika Dahan on the night before — the bonfire that burns away the past year's sorrows. The day of colour itself, with gulal, thandai, and the Mewari tradition of fire-crossing in the village squares around Banswara and Dungarpur. Dhulandi, the day after, when the colour washes away and the year truly begins.
Rajasthani touches you'll see in Australia
The Holi celebrations across Melbourne and Sydney each March are pan-Indian affairs — large, joyful, and welcoming. Rajasthani-Australian families bring their own touches: dhol-thali music, traditional gulal in the saffron-yellow that's almost a Rajasthani signature, ghevar sweets, and the warmer thandai recipes from Mewar.
Mahavir Jayanti marks the birth of Bhagwan Mahavir, the twenty-fourth and last Tirthankara of Jainism. It is the most important festival of the year for Australia's Marwari-Jain community — a population that has grown rapidly, with the 2021 Census recording 5,851 Jain Australians, a 44% increase on 2016, and concentrations in Sydney's Girraween and Melbourne's Moorabbin.
Where the Jain Marwari community celebrates
Sydney Jain Mandal (Girraween) — founded 1991, the anchor of Sydney's Jain community.
Melbourne Shwetambar Jain Sangh (Moorabbin) — the community behind Victoria's first Jain temple, with marble shipped from Rajasthan.
Vitraag Jain Shwetambar Sangh (Girraween) — an additional Sydney centre.
Jain communities also gather in Perth and Brisbane. Mahavir Jayanti is observed with prayers, processions, and the deeply important Jain principle of ahimsa — non-violence in thought, word, and deed.