Teej: the sindhara, and which Teej you actually mean

Somebody says “Teej is coming” and you have to work out which one they mean, because there are three and they are not close together. Every page that answers “when is Teej” by giving one date is wrong for roughly two thirds of the people reading it.

Which one matters more than usual here, because the gifting is different for each. Hariyali Teej is about the sasural sending things to a married daughter. Hartalika Teej is a fast, and a fast is not an occasion for cash. Get the festival wrong and you will send exactly the wrong thing at exactly the wrong time.

So: which Teej, then the sindhara, then what people actually give.

The three Teejs

Teej	When	What it is
Hariyali Teej	Shravan, around July or August	Green, swings, the sasural's sindhara
Kajari Teej	Bhadrapad, a fortnight later	Observed mainly in UP, MP and Bihar
Hartalika Teej	Bhadrapad Tritiya, around September	A nirjala fast for Shiva and Parvati

Hartalika Teej 2026 is CONTESTED between Sunday 13 and Monday 14 September, because the tithi straddles sunrise and regional panchangs resolve it differently. Do not take a date off any page, including this one. Check the panchang your family actually uses, and if the household is fasting, that is the one that decides.

If you are reading this because a Teej invitation arrived and you are not sure which, the tell is the colour. Hariyali Teej is green, everybody wears it, there are swings hung from trees. Hartalika Teej is a fast, quieter, and the women observing it will not have eaten or had water since the previous evening.

The sindhara, which is the actual gifting tradition

This is the part nobody outside north India knows, and it is the whole gifting structure of Hariyali Teej.

The sindhara is a parcel sent by a married woman's in-laws, or in many families by her parents, in the days before Teej. It goes to her, specifically, and it typically contains green bangles, mehendi, a saree or suit, sweets (ghevar above all), and often cash.

The direction is what people get wrong. It is not a gift the guest brings to the party. It travels between two households about one woman, and it is a statement that she is looked after by both. In families that keep it properly the sindhara arriving late is noticed in the same way a forgotten Rakhi is.

Ghevar

It is worth knowing that ghevar is not incidental. It is the Teej sweet the way modak is the Ganesh Chaturthi sweet, disc-shaped, honeycombed, soaked. In Rajasthan and Haryana a sindhara without ghevar is an incomplete sindhara, and the good stuff sells out.

What people actually give

Who	Common range	Notes
Sindhara cash, in-laws to daughter-in-law	₹1,101 to ₹5,101	Alongside the saree, bangles and ghevar, not instead of them
Parents to a married daughter	₹1,101 to ₹2,101	Often with her favourite mithai rather than the formal set
To a newly married woman, first Teej	The largest of the year	First Teej is a proper occasion and the sindhara is bigger
Between friends, at a Teej get-together	₹101 to ₹501, or nothing	Usually bangles or mehendi rather than money
To household help	₹251 to ₹1,101, plus sweets	Especially where they are also observing the fast

Ending in one, as always, and for the same reason: an even, round amount is what you hand over at a funeral, and a number ending in one cannot be divided in half, so the relationship stays open.

Hartalika Teej is different, and cash sits oddly on it

Hartalika Teej is a nirjala vrat, a fast without even water, kept overnight through to the next morning's puja. It is an act of devotion, not a social occasion, and the mood of the day is nothing like Hariyali Teej.

So gifting is thinner and quieter. What is normal: taking suhaag samagri to an older woman in the family, or fruit and something for the vrat to be broken with. What sits badly: arriving with an envelope of cash for somebody who has been without water for eighteen hours. It is not offensive, it is just the wrong register.

If you want to give money around Hartalika Teej, give it the day after, or give it as part of the sindhara at Hariyali Teej where it belongs.

What to write

Teej messages tend to arrive as forwards with a picture of a swing on them. If you have room to write properly, the things worth saying are the specific ones: her first Teej away from home, the year everybody got mehendi done in the wrong room, the fact that you know she is fasting and you are thinking about her at four in the afternoon when it is hardest.

“Teej ki shubhkamnaayein” with nothing after it is fine and forgettable. One sentence that only you could have written is not.

So what should you send?

Sending a sindhara to a daughter or daughter-in-law: green bangles, ghevar, something to wear, and ₹1,101 to ₹2,101 with it. Make it bigger if it is her first Teej. Going to a Hariyali Teej get-together: bangles or mehendi cones, no envelope needed. Around Hartalika Teej: fruit and suhaag samagri, and save the cash for another day.

And check which Teej before you do any of it, because the whole calendar turns on that and the internet is not reliable about it.