ਛੱਠ ਪੂਜਾਛੱਠ ਪੂਜਾ

Chhath Puja is an ancient Hindu festival dedicated to Surya, the Sun, and to Chhathi Maiya, the goddess of the festival. It is kept on Kartik Shukla Shashthi, the sixth day of the bright fortnight of Kartik, six days after ਦੀਵਾਲੀ, and it lasts four days. Devotees, most of them women, fast without food or water for about 36 hours and stand in rivers and ponds to offer arghya, water and milk poured as an offering, to the setting sun and then to the rising sun. There is no priest and no idol in the core ritual: the devotee offers directly to the Sun, in public, at the water's edge.

What is Chhath Puja?

The name comes from shashthi, the sixth day. Chhath is native to Bihar, Jharkhand, eastern Uttar Pradesh and the Terai of Nepal, the Mithila and Madhesh regions, and it is now kept in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata, and by the diaspora in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, Mauritius and Singapore. It is dedicated to Surya as the visible source of all life on Earth, and to Chhathi Maiya, the sixth form of Prakriti and Surya's sister, who is believed to protect children and grant them long life and good health. A smaller Chhath, called Chaiti Chhath, is also kept in the month of Chaitra in spring.

What happens on each of the four days?

The first day is Nahay Khay. The devotee takes a holy bath, the house and kitchen are cleaned, and one sattvic meal is eaten, often lauki-bhaat, bottle gourd with rice and chana dal, cooked without onion or garlic. The second day is Kharna, also called Lohanda. The devotee fasts through the day and, after sunset, breaks the fast with rasiao kheer, rice cooked in milk with jaggery, and roti. After Kharna the 36-hour nirjala fast begins, without food and without water.

The third day is Sandhya Arghya, the main day. Thekua, the signature prasad of wheat flour, jaggery and ghee, and fruit are arranged in a soop, a bamboo winnowing basket, and a daura, a deep bamboo basket. In the late afternoon the family walks to the ghat, the daura often carried on the head, singing Chhath songs. Standing in the water, the devotee offers arghya to the setting sun, raising the soop of thekua, fruit and sugarcane. At night many families hold kosi, lamps lit under a canopy of sugarcane stalks. The fourth day is Usha Arghya. Before sunrise the family returns to the ghat, arghya is offered to the rising sun, Chhathi Maiya is prayed to, and the fast is broken with a little prasad and water, the parana. The waterless fast is demanding, and tradition allows a modified fast, taking part in the arghya without fasting, or another family member keeping the vrat. Pregnant women, people with diabetes, older people and anyone on regular medicine should speak to a doctor first.

Why do devotees worship the setting sun?

Chhath is the only major festival in which the setting sun is worshipped as well as the rising one. It is an act of gratitude to the Sun for light, warmth, harvests and life itself. The Sun is visible to every being, rich or poor, and at the ghat all stand side by side. The offerings are the same for everyone: thekua, fruit, sugarcane and water. The festival is as much about nature, discipline and family as it is about prayer, and the wishes made at the water's edge are for children and for the family.

Which legends lie behind Chhath?

In the Ramayana, when Rama and Sita returned to Ayodhya, people celebrated ਦੀਵਾਲੀ, and on its sixth day Sita fasted and performed Surya Shashthi. She was blessed with Lava and Kusha as sons. In the Munger region, Sita Charan, Sita's footsteps, marks the place where she is believed to have kept the festival. In the Mahabharata, Kunti performed the puja after she and the Pandavas escaped from the house of lac, and Karna, the son of Surya and Kunti, is believed to have been conceived after her worship. Draupadi is also said to have performed the puja, on the advice of the sage Dhaumya, so that the Pandavas would regain their lost kingdom. The Brahma Vaivarta Purana tells of Chhathi Maiya, and the festival's roots reach back to the Vedic period, when sages fasted for days and prayed to the Sun with mantras from the Rig Veda.

Where is Chhath celebrated?

Its heartland is Bihar, Jharkhand, eastern Uttar Pradesh and Nepal. The ghats of Patna and the Deo Sun Temple in Aurangabad district, Bihar, are among its important centres. In Punjab and Chandigarh the Bihari and Purvanchali community keeps the festival too: in 2026 the Bihar Foundation's Punjab and Chandigarh chapter invited the Governor of Punjab to the celebration on 15 November. Abroad, Chhath is kept in Toronto, New York, London, Dubai and Sydney, among other cities. In 2026 the Toronto times were a Sandhya Arghya sunset of 4:52 PM on 15 November and an Usha Arghya sunrise of 7:13 AM on 16 November. In every city the offering follows the local sun, never India's clock.

When is Chhath Puja in 2026 and 2027?

In 2026 Chhath runs from Friday 13 November to Monday 16 November: Nahay Khay on the 13th, Kharna on the 14th, Sandhya Arghya on Sunday the 15th and Usha Arghya with parana on Monday the 16th. In Patna the Sandhya Arghya sunset is 5:01 PM and the Usha Arghya sunrise is 6:07 AM. Shashthi runs from 11:24 PM on 14 November to 2:01 AM on 16 November. In 2027 the four days fall on 2 to 5 November: Nahay Khay on Tuesday 2 November, Kharna on Wednesday 3 November, Sandhya Arghya on Thursday 4 November and Usha Arghya on Friday 5 November. The date moves every year with the lunar calendar, so check a local panchang for your own city's sunrise and sunset.