Autumn · 13 November 2026 – 16 November 2026
Chhath Puja
सूर्यषष्ठी · To the sun and to Chhathi Maiya
Festival details
13 November 2026 – 16 November 2026
Kartika Shukla Shashthi · Chhath
4 days
About
ॐ ह्रीं ह्रीं सूर्याय नमः
Chhath Puja is a demanding four-day observance for the sun and his shakti Chhathi Maiya, in which the devotee goes thirty-six hours without water and stands in a river or pond to offer arghya to the setting and then the rising sun.
Origin
Chhath rests on Vedic sun worship, on the solar hymns of the Rig Veda and the praises of Usha, the dawn. It is among the rare observances that need no priest, no ritual specialist, and no temple: the devotee stands in the water and offers directly to the sun. Chhathi Maiya is understood as Shashthi Devi or a form of Usha, guardian of children. The festival is the cultural soul of Bihar, Jharkhand, eastern Uttar Pradesh, and the Mithila region of Nepal, and has travelled with migrants across India and beyond.
Why it is celebrated
Chhath is a festival of thanks — the sun is the source of energy, grain, health, and life, and the vrat is gratitude returned. Offering first to the setting sun is unusual and deliberate: it teaches that what is departing deserves the same honour as what is rising. Purity is its life — new clothes, prasad cooked on a clay stove, thekua never tasted before it is offered, and the walk to the riverbank barefoot. Caste, class, and gender make no difference at the ghat, where all stand in one line, and the vrat is believed to guard one’s children and prosper the household.
The katha
The best-known Puranic account is of King Priyavrata, long without a child. Through the sage Kashyapa’s yajna his queen Malini bore a son, but the child was stillborn. As the king grieved, Devasena, Brahma’s mind-born daughter and Shashthi Devi herself, appeared and said she was the protector of creation; if the king would worship her properly, the child would live. He kept the vrat on Kartika Shukla Shashthi and the boy was restored — and from then Shashthi Devi was honoured as Chhathi Maiya. Another strand comes from the Mahabharata, where Draupadi and the Pandavas, advised by the sage Dhaumya, worshipped the sun and so were freed of hardship and illness and regained their kingdom.
Stories & episodes
The story of Karna, son of Surya, is bound closely to this festival: he stood waist-deep in water each day to offer to the sun and turned no petitioner away while he did, and in Anga, today’s Bhagalpur region, the tradition is traced to him. Another belief holds that Sita, returning to Ayodhya after the victory in Lanka, kept the Chhath vrat at Munger, where her footprints are still shown. The four days are themselves a narrative: Nahay Khay with its bath and sattvic meal; Kharna, a day of fasting broken at dusk with jaggery kheer and roti; the third evening’s Sandhya Arghya, when a winnow of coconut, thekua, and seasonal fruit is offered to the setting sun; and the fourth dawn’s Usha Arghya, when the fast is finally broken. Folk songs sung at the ghat, like “Kanch hi bans ke bahangiya,” carry the festival’s memory across generations.
Rituals & customs
Nahay Khay with its bath, new clothes, and a meal of gourd and gram dal; Kharna, fasting through the day and prasad of jaggery kheer at dusk; thirty-six hours without water; bamboo winnows and baskets filled with thekua, coconut, sugarcane, banana, and seasonal fruit; standing in the river or pond for the evening and dawn arghya; the kosi lit with lamps at the ghat; the folk songs of Chhath.
Where it is celebrated
Bihar, Jharkhand, eastern Uttar Pradesh, and the Mithila region of Nepal; carried by migrants to Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and overseas.