Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Varalakshmi Vratham

Sravanamasam, the 5th month of hindu calendar is an auspicious month. Varalakshmi vratam falls on 2 friday of this month or the friday before poornima & Maha Lakshmi Devi is worshiped as Vara lakshmi devi on this day. This pooja is performed by married & unmarried women for prosperity, wealth & happiness.


For this festival we start preparations with purchasing of any gold ornaments or at least a lakshmi roopu or lakshmi kasu a few days ahead of the festival.
Cleaning the house is common in all festivals. Apart from that the preparations start one day ahead with arranging the pooja items. Few of the must have items on the list are flowers, fruits, coconut, turmeric, kum kum, toram & prasadam for goddess.

Setting up for pooja.

On the pooja day we wake up early in the morning take head bath & will prepare for pooja. Initially we arrange the goddess with flowers, ornaments & any new jewelry bought can be kept near goddess.
Pooja starts with lighting the deepam & pooja will take around 30 to 45mins. I have a CD of pooja procedure & I'm following the same for year's.{For pooja procedure you can get a CD or a printed book that are available in Indian book stores.}


For initial prasadam we offer paanakam, vada pappu, coconut & fruits. Later for the main prasadam which will be a elaborated one includes a sweet pongal, pulihora, gaarelu, boorelu, dal, curry,rice & curd. Usage of onion and garlic is restricted for prasadam. {List of items might vary but pulihora & a sweet dish are a must.} It is believed that we should offer lakshmi devi a sweet made of channa dal on this day. Besan related sweet dishes are also good to offer as prasadam for goddess.


Preparing toram is part of the pooja. It is made of 9 threads & turmeric is applied to it. Toram should consists of 9 knots and it is kind of a 9knot garland with flowers and leaves. We perform pooja to toram & can wear it right away. 


The important part of pooja is Vaaina Daanam. I generally offer the first vaainam to goddess & then to anyone who is present at the time of pooja. Later will invite friends that evening & offer them taambulam & prasadam.


I wish everyone a Happy Vara Lakshmi Vratam & may goddess shower you with her blessings.


11 comments:

  1. useful information
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  2. This is very important festival for us and our families back home celebrate this with so much of fervor. You reminded me my childhood days.

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  3. NIce deco. We too celebrate Varalakshmi vratam. But in a little bit different way. Nice food too.

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  4. Well explained. Your Lakshmi face is beautiful. We have a similar one that we use for the kalasam during golu

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  5. Very festive, we dont do this vratham but heard lot about this festival through my neighbour.

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  6. beautiful altar - and Kesari looks like something we have in the Caribbean at Hindu festivals called Prasad

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  7. Its such a nostalgic post Sreevalli. Great to read about it and th eLakshmi looks so cute and pretty...

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  8. excellent piece of information, I had come to know about your website from my friend kavitha, pune,i have read atleast 8 posts of yours by now, and let me tell you, your site gives the best and the most interesting information. This is just the kind of information that i had been looking for, i'm already your rss reader now and i would regularly watch out for the new posts, once again hats off to you! Thanx a lot once again, Regards, Varalakshmi Vratham

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