Chhath Puja, also called Surya Shashthi, is the four-day Surya worship festival principally observed in Bihar, Jharkhand, eastern Uttar Pradesh, and the Mithila region of Nepal. In 2026 it runs from Friday, 13 November (Nahay Khay) to Monday, 16 November (Usha Arghya), with the principal Sandhya Arghya offering on the evening of Sunday, 15 November. The festival is unique in the Hindu calendar in three ways: it directly worships the sun (Surya), with no idol or murti involved; it includes a thirty-six-hour Nirjala fast for the principal observer (the vrati); and it requires the vrati to stand waist-deep in a river or pond for the arghya offerings. The deities are Surya Dev (the sun) and Chhathi Maiya, the goddess Shashthi, treated as Surya’s sister or consort in the regional theology.
Day 1: Nahay Khay
Nahay Khay (“bathe and eat”), 13 November 2026, is the festival’s opening. The vrati (the principal observer, usually a married woman, sometimes a man) bathes in the local river or pond at dawn. The day’s single meal is taken before sunset: rice with channa dal and lauki (bottle gourd), cooked over a wood-fired stove using new earthen utensils, with no onion, garlic, salt other than rock salt, or commercial spices. The meal is prepared by the vrati herself in a part of the kitchen that has been cleaned and not used for non-Chhath cooking for the preceding days. The Chhath dietary regime is among the strictest in the Hindu festival calendar; the kitchen is treated as ritually delicate for the four-day period.
Day 2: Kharna
Kharna, 14 November 2026, is the day-long fast. The vrati fasts from sunrise without food or water. In the evening, after the sunset, the vrati cooks rasiao-kheer (a thick rice and milk preparation sweetened with jaggery) and chapatis, offers it to the household altar, and breaks the day’s fast with this single meal. Immediately after this meal, the thirty-six-hour Nirjala fast begins: from sunset on Kharna to sunrise on Usha Arghya day, no food, no water, no liquid. This thirty-six-hour Nirjala is the festival’s central physical observance; it is the longest waterless fast in regular Hindu practice.
Day 3: Sandhya Arghya
Sandhya Arghya, 15 November 2026, is the festival’s most photographed day. The afternoon is given to preparation of the prasad: thekua (a wheat-flour and jaggery sweet, the festival’s signature offering, made by deep-frying small patties of dough), seasonal fruits (banana, sugarcane stalks, water chestnut, coconut, custard apple, pomegranate, oranges), and rice ladoos. The prasad is arranged in soop (winnowing baskets made of bamboo) and daura (larger bamboo carriers).
In the late afternoon the family carries the prasad to the riverbank or the local pond. The vrati, in traditional yellow or red sari (in many sub-traditions the vrati wears the cotton sari without stitching, draped in a specific Bihari style), walks barefoot to the water. The vrati then enters the water and stands waist-deep, facing west toward the setting sun. As the sun reaches the horizon, the vrati raises a soop containing the prasad and a small earthen lamp, and offers arghya (a small libation of water and milk) to the setting sun. Family members on the bank pour water over the vrati’s hands. The arghya is offered to the setting sun specifically; this is the only Hindu festival where the setting sun receives the primary offering. The reading is significant: Surya is worshipped not only at rising (the conventional auspicious moment) but at setting, when the sun is most directly identified with the dying god who returns the next morning.
Day 4: Usha Arghya
Usha Arghya, 16 November 2026, closes the festival. The vrati, having spent the night near the river or returning at pre-dawn, again enters the water; this time the family stands on the bank facing east, watching for the sun’s first appearance. As the sun rises, the vrati offers the second arghya to Surya in the rising form. The thirty-six-hour Nirjala fast is broken with a sip of ginger tea or water followed by a small portion of the offered prasad. The remaining prasad is distributed to family, neighbours and other observers at the ghat; the public sharing of Chhath prasad is treated as ritually meritorious.
Thekua: the principal prasad
Thekua is the festival’s signature prasad. The recipe is austere by tradition:
- Whole wheat flour (atta): 2 cups
- Jaggery (gur): 3/4 cup, dissolved in 1/2 cup hot water and strained
- Ghee: 1/4 cup, hot, mixed into the flour as moyan
- Fennel seeds (saunf), grated coconut, cardamom powder: small quantities for flavour
- Ghee or pure mustard oil: for frying
The dough is kneaded firm (not soft), shaped into small patties either with a wooden mould stamped with patterns or with a fork pressed against the surface, and deep-fried in ghee or mustard oil on a low flame until uniformly dark brown. The result keeps for weeks at room temperature. The prasad is offered in the soop in groups of four, eight, or sixteen.
Why Surya specifically
Surya worship is the oldest stratum of Indo-European religious practice; the Rig Veda contains numerous hymns to Surya in his various names (Aditya, Savitri, Pushan, Mitra, Bhaga, Vivasvan). The Chhath festival represents the most direct continuous practice of Vedic-era Surya worship; the form (waist-deep in the river, no idol, no priest, no mantra in Sanskrit prescribed; arghya offerings to the rising and setting sun) is older than most temple-based Hindu worship that surrounds it. The Brahma Purana attributes the Chhath observance to Karna, the sun-born son of Kunti, in the Mahabharata; the Mahabharata’s own Aranyaka Parva references Karna’s daily standing-in-the-water Surya worship.
Chhathi Maiya, the goddess of the sixth lunar day, is treated regionally as Surya’s sister; she is the goddess to whom children are dedicated. Married women in Bihar who observe Chhath do so primarily for the well-being of their children; the festival is the year’s most direct mother-child observance after Karva Chauth (which is for husbands).
The vrati’s preparation
The Chhath vrati typically prepares for several weeks before the festival:
- Strict satvik diet for the preceding fortnight: no onion, no garlic, no non-vegetarian food, no alcohol.
- Sleep on the floor (not on a bed) for the preceding nights.
- Bathing in the river or pond daily.
- Sourcing of new earthen utensils, bamboo soops, new clothes.
- The kitchen designated for Chhath cooking is scrubbed and not used for non-Chhath cooking from Nahay Khay onward.
The vrati’s family (parents, siblings, husband, children, in-laws) actively supports the observance: women cook the prasad, men carry the daura to the ghat, children fetch water and flowers. The festival is a family-wide effort centred on the vrati.
Where to observe in scale
- Patna: the Ganga ghats at Patna, especially Collectorate Ghat, Gandhi Ghat and Kali Ghat, host the largest single concentration; the state government runs special arrangements for the four days.
- Varanasi: a major Chhath observance runs on the Ganga ghats parallel to the regular Varanasi schedule.
- Delhi: Yamuna ghats at ITO, Geeta Colony and Kalindi Kunj; the Bihari and eastern Uttar Pradesh population in Delhi makes the city one of the larger Chhath centres outside Bihar.
- Mumbai: Juhu Beach and other beaches; Chhath in Mumbai is a recent (post-1980s) phenomenon driven by migration.
- Kolkata: Hooghly ghats, especially Babughat and Princep Ghat, host substantial Chhath observance.
For what it’s worth, the most defensible position for someone watching Chhath for the first time is the riverbank during Sandhya Arghya, neither at the centre of the ritual nor far from it. The festival’s visual structure (rows of women waist-deep in the river, holding up bamboo soops at the setting sun, family members behind them with cane baskets) is among the most striking in Indian public ritual; standing close enough to see this clearly but without disrupting the vratis is the right position.
Common questions
Can men observe Chhath?
Yes. Although the vrati is most commonly a married woman, men also observe the full thirty-six-hour Nirjala fast and the arghya offerings; sons and husbands in Bihari households often take the vrat for the well-being of the family. The festival’s grammar accommodates either; the social weighting tends to be on married women, but the underlying ritual is not gendered.
Is the thirty-six-hour fast safe?
The Nirjala fast is medically demanding. Pregnant women, the elderly, those with diabetes or kidney conditions, and those on regular medication are advised against the strict form; modified observance (with water but no food, or with juice and fruit) is accepted in such cases. The classical permission for medically constrained vratis is to observe a phalahar form rather than Nirjala. Consult a physician before attempting the full Nirjala if there is any pre-existing medical condition.
What is the significance of the soop?
The soop, a flat winnowing basket of bamboo, is the festival’s principal ritual object. It is the vessel in which the prasad is arranged and raised to Surya during arghya. The bamboo material is treated as ritually pure; metal or plastic soops are not accepted. The soop is prepared fresh for each Chhath; many Bihari families buy new soops in the days before the festival from designated craftsmen.
A limitation worth noting
Specific arghya timings shift by city longitude and by year; the times above are approximate windows centred on sunset and sunrise on the respective dates. The Bihar State Disaster Management Authority publishes ghat-specific timing advisories before each Chhath. Sub-regional variations (Magadhi vs Mithila vs Bhojpuri Chhath) carry their own additions and prasad lists. For an overview see the Wikipedia entry on Chhath and the Bihar State Tourism Department’s annual Chhath advisories at bihartourism.gov.in.
