Only Vegetarian Food Will Be Served In Indian Railways During The Month Of Sawan

According to one official, the IRCTC (Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation) in Bhagalpur of Bihar has declared that during the month of Sawan, it will only serve vegetarian food items to the passengers. As a matter of fact, the Railways will not provide non-veg food items from 4th July.  

Only veg food items from 4th July

According to an official of Bihar’s Bhagalpur’s food services stall, the Railways will only serve vegetarian food from July 4 and there will be no supply of non-veg food whatsoever. Informing about this decision, Pankaj Kumar, the food services stall manager, informed news agency ANI that there will be no onion and garlic present in the food items that the Railways is going to serve. Besides this, the Railways will also serve fruits to the passengers while they will also take care of cleanliness. The application of this particular arrangement will be done throughout the month of Sawan.   

According to the Hindu calendar, we also refer to Sawan as the month of Shravan which happens to be the 5th month of the lunar calendar of the Hindus and one of the most sacred months during the year. During this time, the Hindus regard every Monday as auspicious and it is the right time for fasting and seeking the blessing of Lord Shiva.  

Moreover, during this time, we also consider the Kanwar Yatra to be a significant ritual. Individuals accumulate water from the holy rivers while performing this rite and place the water in small pots made of mud which we refer to as Kanwars. The devotees are going to put on clothes with the color of saffron while carrying the sacred water and walking on foot for the purpose of visiting temples that are dedicated to the Hindu God Shiva. Devotees known as Kanwariyas are known to visit locations such as Gaumukh, Haridwar, and Gangotri in Sultanganj and Uttarakhand in Bihar for fetching the sacred water of the River Ganga and following that, worshiping the God using that water.  

We consider Sawan to be the 5th month of the lunar calendar of the Hindus. We have dedicated this auspicious month for the purpose of worshiping Lord Shiva.  

The Shravan period stretches for 2 months this year  

This year, the period of Shravan stretches for a couple of months rather than the conventional period of one month. Earlier, we used to observe a virtually 2-month-long Shravan period which was almost 19 years ago.  

The initial fasting Monday during this period this year will be on 10th July, and 28th August happens to be the last Monday fast during this period. This year, Sawan is going to begin on the 4th of July and it will extend till the 31st of August while lasting for as many as 58 days.