Vat Savitri Vrat 2020: Date, Amavasya time and Puja Vidhi

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New Delhi: The famous Vat Savitri Vrat (fast) is observed by married women pan India on the Amavasya (the no moon night) in the Jyeshtha month as per the Hindu Purnimanta calendar followed in North India. The day is dedicated to Savitri, who fought Yama - the god of death to bring back her dead husband Satyavan and eventually succeeded. 

On Vat Savitri Vrat, married women observe fast and pray for the well-being of their husbands. In South India, the same vrat is observed on Purnima (Full Moon Day) in the same month according to the Amanta calendar.

This year, the Vat Savitri Vrat in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Punjab and Haryana will be observed on May 22, 2020. 

Vat Savitri Amavasya Muhurat:

Vat Savitri Amavasya on Friday, May 22, 2020

Vat Savitri Purnima Vrat on Friday, June 5, 2020 (In Southern states)

Amavasya Tithi Begins - 09:35 PM on May 21, 2020
Amavasya Tithi Ends - 11:08 PM on May 22, 2020

(as per drikpanchang.com)

Ingredients for Vat Savitri Vrat Puja:

The essential items are very important for the puja to be considered complete. For the puja, 5 fruits (at some places it may 9 types of fruits and flowers offered to the goddess) yellow and red thread, a Kalash with water, incense stick, sindoor (vermilion), a piece of red cloth and last but not the least, idols of Savitri, Satyavan and Lord Yama made of clay.

The Puja Vidhi may differ from region-to-region. 

Vat Savitri Puja Vidhi: 

After waking up early in the morning and taking a bath, women wear fresh clothes and get ready by doing solah shringar (applying sindoor, wearing bindi, bangles etc).

Collect all the puja ingredients and place them on a tray or a basket made of cane.

Visit a place that has a Banyan tree (Vat Vrishka).

Then place the idol Satyavan and Savitri to the left at the bottom of the tree's trunk. Leave some space and play the idol of Lord Yama to Satyavan's right.

Offer water, five fruits or 9 (depending upon your customs), incense stick, red cloth and vermilion to the idols. Then start circumambulating the tree and do as many parikramas as possible - 11, 21, 51 or 108 times while winding the yellow and red thread around the tree's trunk.

Then listen to the legend of Savitri and Satyavan (the Katha is an integral part of the puja and mandatory too). After going home, the fruits offered as prasad can be consumed. Later in the evening, one can consume sweets.

After this, women seek the blessings of the Lord and pray to goddess Savitri for the well-being of their spouses. The women who observe this fast also pay obeisance to the elderly in their family and husbands, seeking their aashirwad (blessings).