Note 210 — Chapter I

Virgins sometimes observe a vow on Poshi-Punema or the full-moon day of Pausha (the 3rd month of the Gujarati Hindus). On this day a virgin prepares her evening meal with her own hands on the upper terrace of her house. She then bores a hole through the centre of a loaf, and observes the moon through it, repeating while doing so a verse210 which means: O Poshi-Punemadi, khichadi (rice and pulse mixed together) is cooked on the terrace, and the sister of the brother takes her meal.211 The meal usually consists either of rice and milk or of rice cooked in milk and sweetened with sugar, or of kansār. She has to ask the permission of her brother or brothers before she may take her food; and if the brother refuses his permission, she has to fast for the whole of the day.212 The whole ceremony is believed to prolong the lives of her brothers and her future husband. The moon is also worshipped at the time of griha-shānti, i.e., the ceremonies performed before inhabiting a newly-built house.213