Choodi Pooja, sometimes spelt Chudi Puja is a festival of the
Gowda Saraswat brahmins celebrated in the month of Shravana. This festival is celebrated by married women for lasting wealth, chastity and happiness. Women offer Choodi Pooja on every Friday and Sunday of the Shravana month.
They assemble near the Tulsi plant in front of their house or temple holding bundles of flowers known as 'choodi kattu' in their hands. First they wash the Tulsi Katte (a basin at the foot of the basil plant) and then apply vermilion, turmeric powder and sandalwood paste and place the Choodi bundles along with betel leaves and betel nuts in the basin. Naivedyam and fruits are offered to the Tulsi plant, followed by Aarti. They sing bhajans, throw akshatha (rice coloured with vermilion and consecrated by mantra), and go around the tulsi plant for about five times.
