Chhath Puja 2026: Dates & Arghya Time

Significance of Chhath Puja

Chhath is a vrat (vowed fast) to the Sun. The vrati worships Surya, the Sun every devotee can watch rising and setting over the water, together with Chhathi Maiya, also known as Shashthi Devi. Both names come from shashthi, the sixth: the main day is Kartik Shukla Shashthi, the sixth lunar day of the bright half of Kartik.

Families describe Chhathi Maiya in more than one way. In popular belief she is Surya's sister. The Puranas know Shashthi Devi as the sixth part of Prakriti, also called Devasena, the goddess who watches over newborns and young children. Other accounts identify her with Usha, the dawn, and honour Pratyusha, whom they take to be the last light of evening, at sunset. These traditions sit side by side.

Both arghyas matter, and many explain them this way. At sunset the vrati thanks the Sun for the day and the season just ended. At dawn she asks for health and long life for the children and the household in the season to come. Chhath falls just after the paddy harvest, and much of what is offered is fresh produce from the fields.

Vratis usually pray for their children and family, or keep the fast to fulfil a mannat (a vow made when a prayer is granted). A smaller Chhath, Chaiti Chhath, is kept in the month of Chaitra, but the Kartik observance is the main one.

The story of Chhath Puja

The Devi Bhagavata Purana tells the story of Shashthi Devi. King Priyavrat, a son of Svayambhuva Manu, had no children with his queen Malini. After the sage Kashyapa performed a sacrifice for a son, Malini conceived, but the child was born dead. Priyavrat carried the body to the cremation ground and, in his grief, was ready to give up his own life.

A goddess then appeared in a shining chariot. She named herself Devasena, a mind-born daughter of Brahma, and Shashthi, the guardian of children. She took the child in her arms and brought him back to life. In return she asked the king to spread her worship, and Priyavrat began honouring her on the sixth day. The same text links her worship to the sixth day after a child's birth.

Many in Bihar also link Chhath to Karna, Surya's son and king of Anga, who is said to have worshipped the Sun every day standing in water. Vratis at the ghat stand in the water in the same way.

How Chhath Puja is observed, at the ghat or at home

1. Clean the home and the kitchen Before Nahay Khay, scrub the house, the kitchen and the path to the ghat. Many families cook the festival food on a clay chulha or a stove kept only for Chhath.
2. Take the Nahay Khay bath On the first morning, bathe in a river or pond if one is close, and bring some of the water home. At home, add a little Gangajal to your bathing water.
3. Eat the one sattvic meal Cook lauki (bottle gourd), chana dal and rice in ghee, with no onion or garlic. Offer it first, then the vrati eats it as her only meal of the day.
4. Keep the Kharna fast On the second day the vrati fasts through the daylight hours. Many keep this fast without water too.
5. Offer and eat the Kharna prasad After sunset, cook rasiaav (rice kheer sweetened with jaggery) and roti, offer them, and let the vrati eat. The prasad is then shared with the family and neighbours, and the vrati's nirjala (waterless) fast begins.
6. Prepare the prasad On the third day, after bathing, make the thekua and kasar in clean or new vessels. Wash and arrange the fruit, sugarcane and other offerings.
7. Fill the soop and daura Arrange the prasad and fruit in bamboo soops (winnowing trays) and place them in the daura (a deep bamboo basket). The vrati dresses in a fresh, simple sari.
8. Walk to the ghat The family carries the daura to the river or pond, singing Chhath geet on the way. Some vratis cover the road by lying full length on the ground, step after step, to keep a vow.
9. Offer Sandhya Arghya During the sunset time shown above, the vrati stands in the water facing the Sun and holds up each soop. Family members pour milk or water from a lota over it as the arghya.
10. Light the kosi Families keeping a mannat tie five to seven sugarcane stalks into a canopy, set offerings beneath it and light earthen lamps around it. This is done in the evening and again before dawn.
11. Offer Usha Arghya Return to the ghat before daybreak and wait in the water for the sunrise time shown above. Offer arghya to the rising Sun, then give prasad to everyone at the ghat.
12. Break the fast with paran The vrati ends her fast with a little water and prasad, and the rest of the prasad is shared with family, friends and neighbours.

Chhath Puja samagri

• Bamboo soops (winnowing trays), one per offering
• A bamboo daura (deep basket) to carry them
• A brass or copper lota for the arghya
• Raw milk and water for the arghya
• Gangajal
• Thekua
• Kasar (rice laddu)
• Sugarcane stalks with leaves
• Whole coconuts
• Bananas
• Sweet lime or other seasonal citrus
• Radish and other seasonal vegetables
• Betel leaves and betel nut
• Earthen diyas, ghee and cotton wicks
• Wheat flour, jaggery and ghee for the prasad
• Rice, jaggery and milk for the Kharna rasiaav
• Lauki, chana dal and rice for Nahay Khay
• A fresh sari or dhoti for the vrati

Regional traditions

Bihar

Patna's Ganga ghats, including Gandhi Ghat and Collectorate Ghat, are cleaned and decorated ahead of the arghya days. Women sing Chhath geet, folk songs in Bhojpuri and Maithili handed down through generations.

Mithila and Nepal's Madhesh

Janakpur keeps the festival at its sacred ponds, such as Ganga Sagar and Dhanush Sagar, with folk musicians playing dhol and shehnai on the banks. Songs accompany every stage, from preparing the offerings to the walk to the water. Chhath is also kept in Birgunj, Rajbiraj and Kathmandu.

Jharkhand and eastern Uttar Pradesh

In Jamshedpur, devotees gather where the Subarnarekha and Kharkai rivers meet. In Varanasi the arghya is offered on the Ganga ghats, among them Assi and Dashashwamedh.

Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata

Purvanchali families in Delhi offer arghya on the Yamuna, at places such as ITO and Kalindi Kunj. In Mumbai the sea stands in for the river at Juhu and Dadar Chowpatty, and in Kolkata families go to Babughat on the Hooghly.

Abroad

Bhojpuri-speaking families in Mauritius, and communities in the US, the UK, Canada and Australia, gather at lakes, rivers or beaches. Where there is no water close by, families fill a tub or a small pool at home and stand in it to offer arghya.

The four days of Chhath

• Nahay Khay, "bathe and eat": the vrati bathes, cleans the house and eats one simple meal of lauki, dal and rice. It is a day of getting ready.
• Kharna, also called Lohanda: a day-long fast ends after sunset with rasiaav and roti. Once that prasad is eaten, the vrati takes nothing, not even water, until the end.
• Sandhya Arghya, also called the pehla arag or first arghya: the hardest day, spent fasting and making prasad, ending at the ghat at sunset.
• Usha Arghya, also called bhor ka arghya or the second arghya: the family returns before dawn, offers arghya to the rising Sun, and the vrati ends her fast with paran.

Chhath prasad: thekua and more

Thekua is the centre of the soop. It is a hard, sweet cake of wheat flour, jaggery and ghee, pressed into a carved wooden mould and fried until reddish brown. It stays good for days, which is why families carry it home and send it to relatives long after the festival.

Kasar, a laddu of powdered rice and jaggery, sits beside it, and the Kharna rasiaav is the sweet the vrati eats before her waterless fast begins. The rest of the offering comes from the season: sugarcane, coconut, bananas, citrus and root vegetables. In many homes nobody eats the new sugarcane until it has been offered at the ghat.

Rules of the vrat

• From Nahay Khay onward the household eats only sattvic food, with no onion, garlic, meat, fish or alcohol.
• The vrati keeps a nirjala fast from the Kharna prasad until paran after Usha Arghya.
• Prasad is made only after bathing, in a clean space, with clean or new vessels.
• In Mithila many vratis have their nails cut on the first day.
• In some communities, once a family begins Chhath it is kept every year and handed on to the next generation.
• If you are unwell, pregnant or elderly, you can take part by helping a vrati instead of keeping the waterless fast.

Chhath Puja dates