Gangaur Festival is usually celebrated in March or April, a fortnight after Holi. It is the most colorful and important festival of Rajasthan. The womenfolk worship Goddess Gauri, the consort of Lord Shiva for marital bliss, long lives of their husbands and conjugal happiness. During this eighteen-day long festival, the girls and married women dress up in their traditional ghaghras and cholis. The idols and images of the Goddess are ornamented in beautiful dresses and exotic jewellery and women make offerings to her for her blessings with great devotion. The period is considered auspicious for marriages. In Jaipur, colorful and huge procession highlighting richly bedecked horses and elephants, music and palanquins are taken out through out the city during the festival in which the main deity of the festival, Gangaur, is taken from the Palace Gate known as Tripolia across the city, passing through Chaugan, to Talkatora, which attracts the tourists.

This festival continues for 18 days. For a newly-wedded girl, it is binding to observe the full course of 18 days of the festival that succeeds her marriage. Even unmarried girls fast for the full period of 18 days and eat only one meal a day.

Gan is a synonym for Shiva and Gaur which stands for Gauri or Parvati who symbolises saubhagya (marital bliss). Gauri is the embodiment of perfection and conjugal love which is why the unmarried women worship her for being blessed with good husbands, while married women do so for the welfare, health and long life of their spouses and a happy married life.