Chhath Puja: The Ancient Sun Festival of Bihar

On the third evening of Chhath Puja, families in Bihar, Jharkhand and eastern Uttar Pradesh walk down to the river, and the women who have been fasting step into the cold water and wait for the sun to set. Most sun rituals greet the sunrise. Chhath first thanks the setting sun, and only the next morning salutes it as it comes back up.

Chhath Puja 2026 falls in the middle of November. The main day, when families gather at rivers and ponds for the sunset offering, is Sunday, 15 November, and the sunrise offering that ends the festival is on Monday, 16 November.

Chhath Puja sunset ritual on Ganges ghat

What is Chhath Puja?

Chhath is a four-day festival dedicated to Surya, the sun god, and to Chhathi Maiya, a goddess believed to be Surya’s sister and the protector of children. The name comes from chhath, six: the main offering falls on the sixth day (Shashthi) of the bright half of the month of Kartik, about six days after Diwali. A smaller Chaiti Chhath is also kept in spring, in the month of Chaitra.

The people who keep the fast are called vratis. They go without food or water for around thirty six hours and pray for the health and long life of their families, especially their children. Most vratis are women, but men keep the fast too.

Chhath Puja 2026 dates: the four days

Day 1, Nahay Khay (Friday, 13 November 2026): The vrati bathes in the Ganga, a nearby river or at home, and then eats a single meal of simple sattvic food. The usual dish is rice with chana dal and lauki (bottle gourd), cooked without onion or garlic. This is the day of preparation.

Day 2, Kharna (Saturday, 14 November 2026): The vrati fasts through the day and eats once after sunset, usually kheer made with jaggery and rice, wheat roti and some fruit. The same prasad is shared with family and neighbours. After this meal the thirty six hour fast without water begins.

Day 3, Sandhya Arghya (Sunday, 15 November 2026, evening): This is the main day. The family walks to the riverbank carrying bamboo baskets called soop or daura, filled with fruit, sugarcane, thekua and rice laddoos. The vrati stands in the water and offers arghya to the setting sun. This is the scene most people picture when they think of Chhath.

Day 4, Usha Arghya (Monday, 16 November 2026, morning): Before dawn the family goes back to the ghat in the cold. The vrati stands in the water again and offers arghya to the rising sun. Then the fast is broken, prasad is shared, and the festival ends.

Exact arghya times depend on local sunset and sunrise, so check a panchang for your city in the week before.

What the Chhath fast asks of devotees

Few Indian festivals ask as much of the person observing them. The main fast lasts about thirty six hours without food or even water, and it is broken only after the sunrise offering on the fourth morning. In the days around it, the family eats only sattvic food, with no onion, garlic or processed food.

Cleanliness is taken very seriously. The prasad is cooked in a kitchen scrubbed for the purpose, often on a fresh earthen chulha, and in some families nobody may enter it without bathing first.

The fast is the vrati’s, but the work belongs to everyone. Neighbours help carry the soops to the ghat, men build small bamboo platforms in the water for the vratis to stand on, and children walk ahead with lamps.

Chhath Puja food: thekua and the soop

The best known Chhath prasad is thekua, made from wheat flour, jaggery and ghee, pressed into patterned rounds and deep fried. It keeps for days, which is useful when relatives travel home and back.

A typical soop holds thekua alongside sugarcane, coconut, banana, lemon and seasonal fruit, often with rice laddoos and fresh turmeric or ginger plants. Everything offered is local and seasonal. You will not find shop-bought sweets in a traditional soop.

The story behind Chhath

Chhath is widely described as one of the oldest festivals in India, often said to go back three thousand years. Worship of Surya certainly goes back to the Rigveda, which has hymns to the sun, but how far the specific Chhath rituals can be traced is harder to pin down.

Two stories from the Mahabharata are told most often. One links Chhath to Karna, the son of Surya, who is said to have prayed to his father every day while standing in the river. His devotion is the model vratis follow when they stand in the water.

The other credits Draupadi. After the Pandavas lost their kingdom in the game of dice, Draupadi is said to have kept the Chhath fast on the advice of the sage Dhaumya, and the family’s fortunes eventually returned.

Why the setting sun comes first

Devotees often explain the order of the offerings in terms of gratitude. You thank the sun for what it has already given before you ask for anything more.

The sunset arghya is a thank-you for a year in which the sun warmed the fields and ripened the crops. The sunrise arghya welcomes the start of a new cycle. Neither is treated as more important than the other.

Chhath Puja outside Bihar

Every November, people from Bihar and eastern UP who work in Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru and Kolkata celebrate where they live. Ghats come up along the Yamuna in Delhi, the Mithi river and Powai Lake in Mumbai, and even beside small artificial ponds in city parks. Communities abroad, including in London and New York, gather at their own makeshift ghats.

In Delhi, the Yamuna banks at Kalindi Kunj draw hundreds of thousands of devotees every year. In Mumbai, Juhu Beach becomes a ghat for one weekend, with the Arabian Sea standing in for the river. In Ahmedabad, workers who cannot travel home build temporary ghats on the Sabarmati.

The pattern is the same everywhere: a woman waist deep in water at sunset, a family carrying the soop through the crowd, and Chhath geet, the old devotional songs of the festival, sung by the women on the bank.

A quiet, demanding festival

Chhath needs no idol, no temple and, in most homes, no priest. What it needs is a river or pond, a soop, the fast, and a family willing to do the work. It is kept by rich and poor households in much the same way.

If you are travelling to Bihar or eastern UP for Chhath, book trains early. Railways run extra services in the week after Diwali, and they still fill up fast.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Chhathi Maiya?

Chhathi Maiya is the goddess worshipped alongside Surya during Chhath. She is believed to be the sun’s sister and the protector of children, which is why vratis pray to her for their children’s health and long life.

Can men observe Chhath?

Yes. Chhath is most often kept by women, but men also fast and offer arghya. In many families husband and wife keep the vrat together.

Can you drink water during the Chhath fast?

No. The thirty six hour fast that begins after the Kharna meal is nirjala, without water, and it ends only after the sunrise arghya on the fourth morning.