Gangaur Festival is usually celebrated in March or April, a fortnight after Holi. It is the most colorful and important festival of Rajasthan. The womenfolk worship Goddess Gauri, the consort of Lord Shiva for marital bliss, long lives of their husbands and conjugal happiness. During this eighteen-day long festival, the girls and married women dress up in their traditional ghaghras and cholis. The idols and images of the Goddess are ornamented in beautiful dresses and exotic jewellery and women make offerings to her for her blessings with great devotion. The period is considered auspicious for marriages. In Jaipur, colorful and huge procession highlighting richly bedecked horses and elephants, music and palanquins are taken out through out the city during the festival in which the main deity of the festival, Gangaur, is taken from the Palace Gate known as Tripolia across the city, passing through Chaugan, to Talkatora, which attracts the tourists. Gangaur festival in Jaipur has its own special charm. For a newly wedded bride, it is considered of utmost importance to observe fasts and rituals specified for eighteen days for the first Gangaur after her marriage. Though, unmarried girls also keep these fasts to find a good husband. 'Gan' is Lord Shiva and 'Gaur' is his wife. Thus, 'Gangaur' signifies Lord Shiva and Parvati as a blessed couple together. It is said that during this period Goddess Parvati returns to her parental home to bless her worshippers and loved ones with marital bliss and on the last day of the festival, a grand farewell is given to her with pomp and show as Lord Shiva escorts her to his abode. During this festival, people of Jaipur prepare 'Ghewar', a dessert, and distribute it among their friends and relatives. According to the rituals, clay and wooden images of Gan and Gauri are made and freshly painted every year for the festival. The community, which specializes in painting the wooden idols are known as 'matherans'. Unlike the idols of Teej, Gangaur idol would not have a canopy. The ladies paint their hands with henna. As the festival begins, pre- cent girls go from home to home carrying Ghudlias (earthen pots with numerous holes all around) with a lamp lit inside them and sing songs as people give them token gifts such as sweets and small amounts of cash. On the last day, these girls break their pots, keep the cash and throw the debris into a well or a tank.