About Govardhan Puja
Govardhan Puja falls on Kartik Shukla Pratipada, the first day of the bright half of Kartik, usually the day after Lakshmi Puja. The story is of Braj in Krishna's childhood. The villagers prepared each year to worship Indra, the god of rain. Young Krishna asked them instead to honour Govardhan hill, which fed their cows and gave them grass, water and shade. Indra sent days of heavy rain in anger, and Krishna lifted the whole hill on the little finger of one hand and held it up as an umbrella, so that every family and every animal of Braj could shelter beneath it until the rain stopped.
To remember this, families in north India make a small Govardhan of cow dung in the courtyard, shaped like a hill or a reclining figure, decorated with flowers, grass and small figures of cows and cowherds. They walk around it in parikrama and worship it in the afternoon or evening. Cows are bathed, decorated and fed.
The day is also Annakut, the mountain of food. Temples and homes prepare a great variety of dishes, often spoken of as chhappan bhog, fifty-six offerings, and arrange them in a heap before Krishna. In Mathura and Vrindavan, and at the hill itself near Govardhan town, the day draws large gatherings, and the offered food is later shared with everyone as prasad.
In Gujarat the same day is Bestu Varas, the Gujarati New Year, when people greet each other with Saal Mubarak, visit elders and temples, and begin the year with sweets. In Maharashtra it is Bali Pratipada or Diwali Padwa, and in Karnataka Bali Padyami, remembering the generous king Bali. In Maharashtra wives perform aarti for their husbands on Padwa.
When Amavasya runs into the next morning, Govardhan Puja may move a day later, since it is kept on the day the Pratipada tithi is present.
