Varalakshmi Vratam: Married women observe fast for welfare of their families

CHENNAI: Varalakshmi Vratam -- also called Varalakshmi Puja or Varalakshmi Nombu -- is being celebrated across Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka on Friday.
Married women observe strict fasting and pray for the welfare of their families.
The festival, which is celebrated on the Friday that precedes the full moon day of the Sravana month, is dedicated to the Hindu goddess Lakshmi, who is worshipped on this day.
It is based on the legend that goddess Parvati conducted this puja on the direction of Lord Shiva, as a ritual for married women praying for the welfare of their husband and families.
Women start the day early with an oil bath and decorate a kalasam (metal pot), representing the goddess, with new clothes, sandalwood paste, vermilion, betel leaves and bangles, and place a coconut on it.
The goddess is then decorated with flowers, vermilion powder and turmeric in some homes, an elaborate Lakshmi arthi is also performed with recitation of chants and slokas dedicated to the goddess.
Women wear a saradu or a holy thread, around their wrists on the completion of the pooja and visit other married women to give them gifts and vermilion.
The puja is followed by an elaborate meal containing specialities such as pacharisi idli, kozhukattai and paruppu payasam.
In some parts of the country, devotees who would go to the temple or invite a priest over to their homes to celebrate the puja, have had to cut down elaborate rituals due to the lockdown.