About Chhath Puja
Chhath Puja is a four-day vrat to Surya, the sun, and Chhathi Maiya, kept mainly in Bihar, Jharkhand, eastern Uttar Pradesh and Nepal's Terai, and by Purvanchali families wherever they live. Its main day, Sandhya Arghya on Kartik Shukla Shashthi, falls on Sunday, 15 November 2026, when fasting devotees stand in water and offer arghya to the setting sun. The fast ends after the offering to the rising sun the next morning.
Chhath falls on the sixth lunar day after the Diwali new moon, six or seven days after Diwali. A woman or man of the house, the vratin or parvaitin, keeps a waterless fast, carries a bamboo tray of fruit and sweets to a river or pond, and stands in the water to offer arghya to the sun as it sets, then again as it rises. No other major Hindu festival worships the setting sun as well as the rising one.
Who is worshipped, and why
The arghya goes to Surya, the sun. The songs and the vrat katha are addressed to Chhathi Maiya, and traditions differ on who she is. One account, linked to the Brahma Vaivarta Purana and the story of King Priyavrata, makes her Shashthi, the sixth form of Prakriti, a goddess who protects children. Many families call her Surya's sister. Others speak of the sun's consorts, Usha and Pratyusha (in some tellings Usha and Sandhya), the light of dawn and of dusk, which is one explanation for the two arghyas.
The origin stories belong to the tradition, not dated history: Sita keeps the vrat after returning to Ayodhya, Kunti after escaping the house of lac, Draupadi for the Pandavas, at a spring near Ranchi. People keep it today for plainer reasons: their children's health, the family's wellbeing, or a mannat, a vow made when a prayer was answered.
Once a family takes up Chhath, it is expected to keep it every year and hand it down. The accepted reason to skip a year is a death in the family.
The four days
Chhath runs from Kartik Shukla Chaturthi to Saptami. The arghya times are simply local sunset and sunrise, so take them for your own town, not Patna's.
- Day 1 · Nahay KhayBath, then one pure meal
The vratin bathes, ideally in a river, the house and the path to the ghat are cleaned, and she eats one sattvik meal: lauki bhaat, bottle gourd with chana dal and arva rice, without onion or garlic.
- Day 2 · Kharna or LohandaA day's fast, broken at dusk
No food or water all day. After the evening puja she eats rasiyaw, kheer made with jaggery, with roti. The 36-hour nirjala fast begins once that meal is over.
- Day 3 · Sandhya ArghyaOffering to the setting sun
The soop and daura are packed, and the family walks to the ghat in the afternoon, singing. The vratin stands in the water and offers arghya as the sun goes down. Some families then keep the kosi: five to seven sugarcane stalks tied into a canopy over a ring of clay lamps.
- Day 4 · Usha Arghya and paranaOffering to the rising sun
Back at the ghat before dawn. After the arghya, the vratin breaks the fast with a little water, ginger or sugar and prasad, and the prasad is shared with everyone who came.
The fast, the kitchen and the soop
The nirjala fast lasts about 36 hours, from the Kharna meal to the morning arghya. Through the four days the vratin sleeps on the floor on a sheet, not a bed. Prasad is cooked in a scrubbed kitchen, often on a new clay chulha fired with mango wood, without onion, garlic or ordinary salt. In Patna, many of those chulhas are made by Muslim women on Beer Chand Patel Path, Daroga Prasad Rai Path and Bailey Road, some for three decades or more. They give up onion, garlic and meat while they work, and bathe before they start.
Thekua is the defining offering: wheat flour, jaggery or sugar syrup and ghee, pressed into a carved wooden mould and deep-fried until reddish brown. It hardens as it cools and keeps for days. Some families call it khajuria or thokni. Beside it go kasar, laddoos of rice flour and jaggery, and whole fruit: sugarcane, coconut, bananas and sweet lime.
It all travels in bamboo: the daura, a deep basket, and the soop, the flat winnowing tray the vratin raises to the sun. Some vratins fulfilling a mannat do dand pranam on the way, lying flat, marking their length with a stick, standing at the mark and lying down again, from home to the ghat.
From Patna's ghats to the Yamuna, Juhu and Kathmandu
Bihar gives government holidays on both arghya days, and the Ganga ghats in Patna fill on the evening of the third. Delhi declared Sandhya Arghya a public holiday in 2025 and prepared over a thousand ghats, 17 of them model ghats on the Yamuna. The river is the hard part. At Kalindi Kunj, vratins have stood in white froth caused by phosphates and detergents from untreated sewage. Boats and bamboo nets barely dented it in 2021; in 2025 the chief minister said phosphate levels there had fallen and the froth was gone.
Mumbai listed 67 Chhath locations in 2025, Juhu and Versova beaches among them, plus 148 artificial ponds. In Nepal, Chhath is a national public holiday. It was long a Terai and Mithila festival, but in 2018 Kathmandu police estimated that at least 40 percent of the worshippers at Kamal Pokhari came from hill communities, and in 2025 the president and prime minister both offered arghya in the capital. In Mauritius, with its large Bhojpuri-speaking community, devotees stand in the sea.
For many people the sound of Chhath is Sharda Sinha, the Maithili and Bhojpuri singer who recorded 62 Chhath songs, "Hey Chhathi Maiya" and "Patna Ke Ghat Par" among them. She died in Delhi on 5 November 2024, the day that year's Chhath began.
Kartik Chhath and Chaiti Chhath
Chhath is kept twice a year, with the same four days and the same prasad. This page is about the autumn one.
| What differs | Kartik Chhath | Chaiti Chhath |
|---|---|---|
| When | Kartik Shukla Shashthi, October or November | Chaitra Shukla Shashthi, March or April, during Chaitra Navratri |
| Scale | The main festival; ghats overflow | Kept by far fewer families |
| Season | Early winter, so the dawn water is cold | Spring turning to summer, so the waterless day is hot |
How to wish someone keeping the vrat
You don't need to keep Chhath to wish someone well on it. "Jai Chhathi Maiya" is the greeting at every ghat and is never wrong. If you visit one, stand back from the water's edge, ask before photographing anyone, and accept prasad when it is held out to you.
Do
- Name the person fasting ("Hope Maa's vrat goes smoothly") rather than sending a general line to the family.
- Offer to carry the daura or hold a lamp. Helpers at the ghat traditionally receive the vratin's blessing.
Avoid
- Don't offer a vratin food, water or even tea from Kharna evening until after the dawn arghya.
- Don't touch another family's soop or offerings, and don't taste prasad before it is offered.
- Don't send "Happy Chhath" to a family in mourning; they may have skipped the vrat this year.
Maa, Chhathi Maiya aapka vrat safal karein. Kharna ka rasiyaw yaad aa raha hai. Paani peene ke baad phone karna. (May Chhathi Maiya make your fast fruitful. I miss the Kharna kheer. Call me after your first sip of water.)
Jai Chhathi Maiya. Raua aur raua parivaar par Chhathi Maiya ke kirpa bani rahe. (Jai Chhathi Maiya. May her grace stay on you and your whole family.)
Wishing you a peaceful Chhath. Take the afternoon you need for the ghat; we'll manage here.
Happy Chhath. A tank in a Gurgaon park isn't the Ganga at Patna, but it's the same sun. Save me a thekua.
Thinking of you on your first Chhath with the family. Hope the dawn water isn't too cold and Maa ji's vrat goes the way she wants.
Remembering him today, when the ghats fill up. No wishes this year, only that you're all keeping well.
Chhath closes the season that runs from Dhanteras through Diwali and Bhai Dooj.
How to wish someone on Chhath Puja
A Chhath wish reads as a prayer, not a party line. Ask that Chhathi Maiya accept the arghya and keep the family well, and name the person fasting if you know who it is. "Jai Chhathi Maiya" works in Hindi, Bhojpuri, Maithili and Magahi alike. Between the Kharna meal and the dawn arghya, don't offer a vratin food or water or joke about the fast. A family that has had a death this year may not be keeping Chhath, so write to them quietly.
Write a few lines in your own words, pick a design and share it as one link on WhatsApp, Instagram or anywhere else. They open an animated card made just for them, with no app and no sign-up.
Language tip: English, Hindi + Bhojpuri, Maithili or Magahi.
When is Chhath Puja in 2026 and 2027?
Chhath Puja is set by the Hindu lunisolar calendar, so it falls on a different date each year. In 2027 it falls 11 days earlier than in 2026.
- 2026
- 2027
Frequently asked questions
When is Chhath Puja in 2026?
Chhath Puja 2026 falls on Sunday, 15 November 2026.
Why is the setting sun worshipped on Chhath?
Chhath is the one major Hindu festival with an offering to the setting sun as well as the rising one. One explanation is that the two arghyas honour the sun's consorts, Pratyusha or Sandhya at dusk and Usha at dawn, so the vrat worships Surya at both ends of his day.
How long is the Chhath fast?
The waterless nirjala fast lasts about 36 hours. It begins after the vratin eats the Kharna prasad of jaggery kheer and roti on the second evening, and ends after the offering to the rising sun on the fourth morning, when she takes a little water, ginger or sugar and prasad.
What is the difference between Chhath Puja and Chaiti Chhath?
Kartik Chhath, the main one, falls on the sixth lunar day of the bright half of Kartik, in October or November. Chaiti Chhath follows the same four-day ritual on the sixth day of the bright half of Chaitra, in March or April, and far fewer families keep it.
Can men keep the Chhath vrat?
Yes. Most vratins are women, but Chhath is not restricted by gender, and men keep the full fast and stand in the water for the arghya.
What should you not do around someone keeping the Chhath fast?
Don't offer a vratin food, water or tea between the Kharna meal and the dawn arghya, and don't touch the soop or taste the prasad before it is offered to the sun. Accept prasad when it is given to you, and don't send a festive greeting to a family that has had a death this year.
What is thekua and why is it made for Chhath?
Thekua is a deep-fried sweet of wheat flour, jaggery or sugar and ghee, pressed in a carved wooden mould. It is the main prasad offered to the sun in the soop, and because it keeps for days without spoiling, families go on sharing it well after the fast ends.
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