Ahoi Ashtami Vrat Katha

Ahoi Ashtami falls on the Ashtami of the waning moon in Kartik, about eight days before Diwali. Traditionally, mothers fast all day for the wellbeing of their children. Ahoi Mata is drawn on the wall in red ochre, or shown in a picture, along with a syahu (porcupine) and its young. In the evening, after puja and the katha, the women look at the stars, offer water and break the fast.

In a town lived a moneylender's wife who had seven sons. Before Diwali she went to the forest to dig soil to plaster her house. The spot where she was digging with her spade was a syahu's den. Without knowing it, her spade struck and killed one of the syahu's young.

She felt very sad, but went home and said nothing. The katha says that after this, troubles came upon her sons one by one and they were parted from her. She wept every day and wondered what wrong she had done.

One day she told the elderly women of the village the whole truth. They said, 'You did not sin on purpose, and you have admitted your mistake. That is good. Now on Kartik Krishna Ashtami, worship Ahoi Mata, draw the syahu and her young, and ask forgiveness.'

The moneylender's wife kept the fast and worshipped Ahoi Mata with full faith, and kept the vrat every year. According to the katha, by the Mother's grace all seven sons came back and joy returned to her home. Since then mothers keep this vrat for their children.