Randhan Chhath

Randhan Chhath is the Gujarati preparation day immediately before Shitala Satam. Its name literally points to cooking: because the household hearth is traditionally kept cold on Shitala Satam, families prepare the next day’s food in advance on the sixth lunar day. Kitchens become especially active as rotla, puri, thepla, sweets, vegetables and other foods that keep well are cooked, after which the stove is cleaned and in many homes ritually rested. Randhan Chhath therefore cannot be understood separately from worship of Goddess Shitala, traditionally associated with cooling, protection and health. The next day the family eats the previously prepared food rather than lighting the stove. The practice turns ordinary household cooking into a ritual of preparation and discipline, while also giving the person responsible for daily cooking a day when no fresh meal has to be prepared.

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

Thepla, puri, bhajiya, sukhdi and vada are made in quantity and kept. After the last of it the stove is cleaned, marked with kumkum and worshipped, and not lit again until the morning after Shitala Satam.