Somvar Vrat Vidhi: Monday Fast for Shiva, Steps and Katha

Monday is the day of the Moon (Soma) and, in popular practice, of Shiva. The Somvar vrat is among the simplest and most widely kept weekly fasts. Women, especially, keep it for a good marriage or a happy home, and many men and women keep it simply as a regular discipline of devotion. The sixteen-Monday form, Solah Somvar, is a common vow.

Timing

The vrat is kept on the weekday, so there is no tithi calculation. The Mondays of Shravana are particularly honoured, and so are Mondays that fall on Pradosh (see the Pradosh vrat page). For the Pradosh and Purnima days that sometimes fall on Monday in your city, use the Pradosh Vrat page, and the city pages such as New Delhi and London. For another place the any-city tool will help. We do not give dates here.

Samagri: what to gather

Steps in order

1. Bathe in the morning, put on clean clothes, and take the sankalp for the day.
2. Go to a Shiva temple, or set up a Linga or picture at home. Bathe it with water and milk.
3. Offer bel leaves, flowers and incense. Chant Om Namah Shivaya, as many times as you wish.
4. Read or listen to the Somvar vrat katha.
5. Sing the Shiv aarti with a lamp.
6. Keep the fast through the day with fruit, milk or water, or one meal, as your family does.
7. In the evening, offer a second short prayer and break the fast with a simple meal of the prasad.

For Solah Somvar, begin on a Monday, usually in Shravana or Kartika or on a Monday your family names, and keep sixteen in a row. On the sixteenth, many families make a sweet called churma and share it, and some arrange a concluding ritual.

The katha

A traditional story tells of a rich, devout moneylender who had everything but a child. Every Monday he fasted and lit a lamp before Shiva. Parvati, seeing his devotion, asked Shiva to bless him. Shiva said the man’s fate held no child, but Parvati’s insistence moved him, and he granted a boon of a son, with a short life of twelve years.

The moneylender was neither elated nor afraid. A son was born. When the boy was eleven he was sent to Kashi to study, in the care of his uncle, and told to give food to Brahmins and to keep a lamp. On the way they stopped at a town where a wedding was under way, and the groom was blind in one eye. To hide it, the groom’s family asked the moneylender’s handsome son to take his place at the ceremony. He agreed, but wrote on the bride’s veil that she would marry another and that he was only going to study.

When the twelfth year came, he died. His mother’s lament was heard by Shiva and Parvati as they passed, and moved by her love and her years of devotion, Shiva gave him life again. He returned home and, in time, the bride found her true husband. The tale teaches steadfastness. It is told as devotional narrative and does not say what any vow will bring.

Regional variations

Customs differ by region and family; follow your family’s custom. In Maharashtra and Gujarat the Shravan Mondays are kept with a different grain offered each week (rice, sesame, green gram, sattu, flaxseed). In the south, Karthigai Somavaram is kept in Kartika. In Bengal Shiva is worshipped with a gentler fast.

Fasting and health

Many take one meal after the evening puja, without salt or with rock salt, and some take only fruit. If you are pregnant, diabetic, unwell, or on regular medication, check with your doctor and do not fast if told not to. A visit to the temple with a bel leaf and a prayer is a complete observance for many people.

Frequently asked questions