Chhath Puja

Chhath Puja is a rigorous four-day worship of Surya, the Sun, and Chhathi Maiya, especially cherished in Bihar, eastern Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and adjoining regions. Unlike many sun festivals, Chhath gives ritual honour to both the setting and rising Sun, symbolically acknowledging decline as well as renewal. The observance begins with purification and a sacred bath, followed by Kharna, when a day-long fast is completed after evening worship. On the third day devotees prepare simple offerings such as thekua, fruits and sugarcane and stand in rivers, ponds or ghats to offer arghya to the setting Sun. Before dawn the next morning they return to offer arghya to the rising Sun and then conclude the fast. Different traditions link Chhath with Draupadi, Karna, Rama and Sita, but its enduring centre is gratitude for sunlight, health, family welfare and the life-sustaining powers of nature.

Chhath Puja is valued for devotion, family tradition and the spiritual or seasonal meaning attached to the day.

Nahay Khay, then Kharna - a day's fast broken at dusk on kheer - and then thirty-six hours without food or water. Sandhya Arghya is offered standing in the water to the setting sun, and Usha Arghya the next morning to the rising one, and the fast ends there. Thekua is made for the baskets, and the riverbank is cleaned by the people using it.

Bihar, Jharkhand, eastern Uttar Pradesh and the Nepali Terai, and carried by migration to Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and the Gulf, where embankments are built on canals and tanks for the evening ghat. There is a smaller Chaiti Chhath in spring kept by far fewer households.