Chhath is the great festival of Bihar, Jharkhand and eastern Uttar Pradesh, kept on the sixth day of the bright fortnight of Kartik. For four days those who take the vow, mostly women, live in strict purity; they fast for thirty-six hours without water, and stand waist-deep in a river to offer arghya first to the setting Sun and then, the next dawn, to the rising one. There is no priest and no image.
The story
Chhath is offered to Surya and to Chhathi Maiya, the mother who protects children. One tradition traces it to Karna, son of the Sun and king of Anga in eastern Bihar, who stood in water each day to worship his father. Another says Sita kept it at Munger on the way home from Lanka, and Draupadi in the forest.
It may be the oldest worship still practised in the north: the Sun, water, a bamboo basket of the season's fruit, and nothing between the worshipper and what is worshipped.
कांच ही बांस के बहंगिया, बहंगी लचकत जाए
The carrying-pole is of green bamboo, and it sways as it goes
The best-known Chhath song, in Bhojpuri
The four days
- Nahay KhayDay one: a bath in the river, and a single meal of rice, chana dal and bottle gourd cooked on a new stove.
- KharnaDay two: a fast through the day, broken after sunset with kheer of jaggery and roti. The thirty-six-hour waterless fast begins after it.
- Sandhya arghyaDay three: families carry the soop and daura, baskets of thekua, sugarcane, coconut and fruit, to the ghat, and the offering is made to the setting Sun.
- Usha arghyaDay four: back at the ghat before dawn for the offering to the rising Sun, after which the fast is broken.
- The songsChhath has its own songs in Bhojpuri, Maithili and Magahi, sung on the way to the water.
Why this date
Chhath is the Shashthi of the bright fortnight of Kartik, kept on the day Shashthi is running at sunset, when the evening arghya is offered. The morning arghya follows at the next sunrise.
Chhath Puja in other years
| Year | Date | Day |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Sunday | |
| 2027 | Thursday | |
| 2028 | Monday | |
| 2029 | Sunday | |
| 2030 | Thursday | |
| 2031 | Wednesday |
More North Indian festivals
29 OctoberDiwaliदीपावली
14 NovemberKartik Purnimaकार्तिक पूर्णिमा
18 OctoberKarwa Chauthकरवा चौथ
9 OctoberDussehraदशहरा
8 OctoberMaha Navamiमहा नवमी
7 OctoberDurga Ashtamiदुर्गा अष्टमी
Where to see Chhath Puja
In North India
- The Ganga ghats, PatnaBiharThe heart of the festival: miles of riverbank cleaned and lit, with lakhs standing in the water.
- Deo Sun TempleBiharThe ancient Sun temple in Aurangabad district, with the most sought-after Chhath fair.
- VaranasiUttar PradeshThe ghats of the Ganga fill from Assi to Rajghat.
- The Yamuna ghats, DelhiDelhiKept by the capital's Purvanchali families at the river and at hundreds of temporary ponds.
Across India
- Juhu Beach, MumbaiMaharashtraHundreds of thousands gather at the sea, far from any river of home.
- KolkataWest BengalThe ghats of the Hooghly, the same Ganga a few hundred miles downstream.
- KonarkOdishaOdisha's great temple to the same god, by the sea.