Hindus celebrate the festival by inviting friends and family for sumptuous meals. The Goddess is worshiped by offering sweets, food, flowers and fruits. Puffed rice, jaggery, groundnuts, fried gram dhal, rice flakes, sugar candy are offered during pooja. People decorate their homes with flowers and torans or doorway hangings of mango leaves or fresh palm leaves.
Sweets are made and distributed among friends, family and neighbors. Gifts too are given away to them. Business places and offices are also decorated and pooja is done to their books, computers, vehicles, tools, machinery and weapons. It is to pray for auspicious good vibrations and victory and above all protection from all kinds of harm. It is called Astra or Ayudha pooja.Ayudha or Astra Pooja is an expression of gratitude to God for granting us tools for everyday use to fulfill our duties, by prostrating before it on this day.
Government offices celebrate this festival by offering worship to office equipment's, computers, laptops and printers.It is a common sight to see buses, trucks, vehicles decorated with banana stems, flowers, with splash of sandal wood paste and kumkum on them. Houses and offices also use banana stems and flowers for decoration. Sharadha pooja is done with books of children. Books are kept for worship and blessings of Goddess are invoked for the gift of learning and knowledge.
