Chhath Puja: What, Why, When, How

What it is

Chhath Puja is the great festival of the Sun of Bihar, Jharkhand, eastern Uttar Pradesh and the Terai of Nepal, kept about six days after Diwali, on the sixth tithi (Shashthi, "chhath") of the bright half of Kartika. Devotees, called vratis, women and men, keep a long and strict fast and stand in a river or pond to offer arghya, an offering of water and food, first to the setting Sun and then to the rising Sun. They worship Surya and Chhathi Maiya, the mother goddess of the festival.

It lasts four days: Nahay Khay, the bath and the first pure meal; Kharna, a day's fast broken in the evening with kheer of rice and jaggery; Sandhya Arghya, the evening offering to the setting Sun; and Usha Arghya, the dawn offering to the rising Sun, after which the fast is broken.

The whole family helps: cleaning the ghat, carrying the bamboo baskets of offerings and singing the old Chhath songs. Families of Bihari and Purvanchali origin keep Chhath around the world, in Mauritius, the US, the UK and elsewhere, at lakes, beaches and community pools. A smaller Chhath is also kept in spring, in Chaitra.

Why it is kept

Worship of the Sun. Chhath is a festival of the Sun. The Sun gives light, warmth, rain and harvest, and Chhath thanks him at both ends of the day, at sunset and at sunrise, with the fruits of the new harvest. The Mahabharata tells of the Sun's care for those who honour him. When the Pandavas went into the forest with many followers and nothing to feed them, Yudhishthira praised the Sun with his hundred and eight names, and the Sun gave him a copper vessel in which food would not run out while Draupadi had not yet eaten (Vana Parva, section 3 in K. M. Ganguli's translation). Karna, the Sun's son, is described as worshipping the Sun each morning until his back was warm with its rays (Adi Parva, section 111). Bihar tradition holds that Draupadi and the Pandavas, and Karna in Anga, kept Chhath.

Chhathi Maiya. Families also worship Chhathi Maiya, a mother goddess who watches over children. Many identify her with Shashthi Devi, whom the Brahma Vaivarta Purana praises as the protector of children, and some call her the Sun's sister. Families pray to her for the health and happiness of their children and their household.

Sita's Chhath. Bihar traditions say that Sita kept the Chhath fast; the tellings differ on when and where, and places associated with her in Bihar keep the memory.

A vow of purity. Families say that what matters most in Chhath is purity and care: the clean ghat, the new utensils, the simple food cooked without onion or garlic, and the devotion of the vrati. Chhath has no priest at its centre; the vratis offer the arghya themselves.

The texts behind the story

• Mahabharata, Vana Parva, section 3 (Yudhishthira's hymn to the Sun and the copper vessel), and Adi Parva, section 111 (Karna's daily worship of the Sun). K. M. Ganguli (tr.), The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa (Calcutta: P. C. Roy, 1883–96), Project Gutenberg volume 1. Public domain in the US; India status not yet confirmed, so summarised, not quoted. (Vana Parva, Section III; Adi Parva, Section CXI)
• Brahma Vaivarta Purana, Prakriti Khanda, chapter 1 (Devasena, called Shashthi, who protects all the children of the world). Rajendra Nath Sen (tr.), The Brahma-Vaivarta Puranam, part 1 (Allahabad: Panini Office, 1920). Summarised in our own words, not quoted. (Prakriti Khanda, chapter I)
• Chhath traditions of Bihar (Chhathi Maiya, the Pandavas, Karna and Sita): folk tradition and the Chhath songs. Summarised in our own words.

When it is kept

The main day, Sandhya Arghya, is the Shukla Shashthi of Kartika that is present at sunset at your location, when the evening arghya is offered to the setting Sun. If Shashthi is present at sunset on two days, the first is taken; if on neither, the day whose sunrise has Shashthi. The other days follow from it: Nahay Khay is two days before (engine id chhath-nahay-khay), Kharna the day before (chhath-kharna), and Usha Arghya the next sunrise (chhath-usha-arghya). The app shows the sunset time for the evening arghya and the sunrise time for the dawn arghya.

The date, from the calendar engine

• Chhath Puja 2027: Sandhya Arghya falls on Thursday, November 4, 2027 in Washington DC (Bihari rule, computed for this city). The date is the same in New Delhi.

The date depends on your city. Every city we cover is on the year page.

Traditions and regional customs

• Bihari, Jharkhandi, Purvanchali and Maithil: Kartika Shukla Shashthi at sunset; four days
• Nepali Terai (Madhesh): the same four days
• Chaiti Chhath: a smaller Chhath in the bright half of Chaitra (not yet computed by the app)

Why the day can differ

Sunset and sunrise are local, so Chhath can fall on different dates in different cities, and the arghya times are always your own city's times, not India's. Families abroad keep the arghya at their own sunset and sunrise, even when relatives in India are offering theirs hours apart.

Abroad, the river or pond is often a lake, a beach, a community pool or a tub of water at home. Use places where local rules allow it, and keep safety first: do not enter deep or cold water, have someone stay beside the vrati, and keep children close. Community groups often arrange a ghat with permission; check with them.

How to keep it at home

1. Before the festival, clean the house thoroughly, and set aside new or freshly cleaned utensils and a clean place to cook. Many families cook the Chhath food on a separate clay stove with mango wood, and no onion, garlic or salt is used in the offerings.
2. Day 1, Nahay Khay: the vrati bathes, if possible in a river or pond, and eats one simple, pure meal, usually rice, chana dal and bottle gourd (lauki) cooked in ghee. The family eats after the vrati.
3. Day 2, Kharna: the vrati fasts all day. In the evening, after worship, the vrati eats kheer made with rice, milk and jaggery (rasiao) with roti, and this is shared as prasad. From then the strict fast begins, often without water, until the dawn arghya.
4. Day 3, Sandhya Arghya: prepare the offerings in bamboo baskets (soop and daura): thekua, fruits such as bananas, coconut, sugarcane, sweet lime, radish and turmeric plants, and lamps. The family carries them to the water. At sunset, the vrati stands in the water facing the setting Sun and offers arghya with water or milk poured over the basket, while the family sings the Chhath songs.
5. Day 4, Usha Arghya: before dawn, return to the water with the baskets and lamps. At sunrise, the vrati offers arghya to the rising Sun, prays to Chhathi Maiya for the family, and then breaks the fast with prasad, often ginger and water or a little thekua. Share the prasad with everyone.
6. Prayers used during Chhath are the Chhath folk songs, sung by the women of the family, and prayers to the Sun such as the Aditya Hridayam, the twelve names of the Sun and "Om Suryaya Namah".

Fasting

The Chhath fast is one of the strictest: after the Kharna meal, many vratis take no food or water for about thirty-six hours, until the dawn arghya. It is kept by choice and by family custom, and families support the vrati throughout. Anyone who is pregnant, unwell, diabetic, elderly or on regular medicine should not keep a waterless fast, and should talk to a doctor first; a family member can take on the vow, or the vrati can keep a lighter fast. Standing in cold water is also hard on the body, so keep it short and stay warm.

Food

Thekua, a crisp sweet of wheat flour, jaggery and ghee, is the heart of the offering, with kasar (a sweet of rice flour), rasiao kheer, fresh fruit, sugarcane and coconut. The Nahay Khay meal is rice, chana dal and lauki in ghee. All of it is cooked without onion or garlic.

For children

The Sun gives us light, warmth and food all year. On Chhath, families say thank you to the Sun twice: once in the evening as he sets, and once in the morning as he rises. They stand by the water with baskets full of fruit and sweets, sing songs together and wait for the sky to turn orange. It is a festival of saying thank you, and of the whole family helping each other.

Something to do together

Check the sunset and sunrise times in the app, and watch both with a grown-up. Draw the sky at sunset and at sunrise, and help arrange the fruit in the offering basket.

Sources

• Panchang engine rules chhath-sandhya-arghya, chhath-nahay-khay, chhath-kharna and chhath-usha-arghya (packages/panchang/data/festivals.json), with the sources each rule lists.
• K. M. Ganguli (tr.), The Mahabharata, Vana Parva, section 3, and Adi Parva, section 111. Public domain in the US; India status unconfirmed.

Related guides

• Diwali (Deepavali)