The festival of 'Vata Poornima' in Maharashtra and Goa

This festival is celebrated annually on the full-moon day of the Hindu month called 'Jyestha'.

On this day, married Hindu women in the State of Maharashtra visit and worship a Banyan tree in their neighbourhood and ask for a boon : each lady prays for a long life for her husband!
The women come in a procession, wearing beautiful new sarees and their wedding jewelry, each carrying a plate containing sliced fruits, covered with a decorative scarf.

A Hindu priest performs a special pooja under the Banyan tree and the women offer these cut fruits and sweets as 'prasad', along with small glass green bangles and black beads.
Holy 'red kumkum' and turmeric are applied to the tree, flowers are placed reverentially and incense sticks are lit.
The women then circumambulate the tree, unwinding a spool of white thread in their hands, so that the trunk of tree is covered in white, as the priest chants the mantras!

They then don a new set of green bangles and a small black bead in a 'thread' woven out of the bark of a jungle tree, which they wear around their neck.

Husbands are not present during this pooja.
It is fascinating to watch this ritual!

This day is called 'Vata poornima' : vata means Banyan tree in Marathi language, and poornima means a full moon.
This pooja is faithfully being done in India since time immemorial.