Chhath Puja

Chhath takes its name from Shashthi, the sixth day of the bright fortnight of Kartik, which comes six days after Diwali. The observance begins two days earlier on Chaturthi and ends at sunrise on Saptami. Since the bright fortnight belongs to Kartik in both calendar systems, the date is the same everywhere.

A second, smaller Chhath, Chaiti Chhath, is kept in the bright fortnight of Chaitra, in March or April. The Kartik festival, however, is by far the larger. The two arghyas are timed exactly to sunset on Shashthi and sunrise on Saptami, so families check local sunset and sunrise times and reach the ghat well in advance.

Chhath is unusual among Hindu festivals in that its central act is worship of the visible sun, both setting and rising, with no image or temple needed. The Incredible India portal of the Government of India describes it as the only occasion on which both the setting and the rising sun are worshipped.

Alongside Surya, devotees worship Chhathi Maiya, the mother goddess of the sixth day, who protects children and grants offspring and health. Devotees identify her with Shashthi Devi, whom the Brahmavaivarta Purana (Prakriti Khanda) describes as a sixth part of Prakriti, the protector of infants in every world. Folk songs also call her the sister of Surya.

Many stories are told on the ghats. One holds that Karna, Surya's son in the Mahabharata, used to stand in water and worship the sun daily. Another tells that Draupadi and the Pandavas kept the vrat to regain their lost kingdom. In Bihar, a tradition at Munger holds that Sita observed Chhath after returning to Ayodhya. These are living folk traditions rather than textual accounts of the festival, and they are passed on mainly through the women's songs sung on the riverbanks.

The rituals are strict and are performed with great attention to purity. Practice varies slightly between families.

The Chhath vrat is among the most demanding in Hindu practice. From the evening of Kharna until the morning arghya on Saptami, the vrati takes neither food nor water. During the four days the household avoids onion, garlic, meat and alcohol; the prasad is cooked without salt, often on a fresh earthen stove using mango wood, in new or specially cleaned utensils. The vrati sleeps on the floor and wears unstitched or fresh clothes. Some devotees make the journey to the ghat in repeated full prostrations as a special vow.

In some communities, once a family begins keeping Chhath, it is continued every year and handed down, and set aside only in a year of bereavement. Those unable to fast for health reasons often help another vrati or join in the arghya and songs.

Bihar is the heart of Chhath, with the Ganga ghats of Patna, Bhagalpur and Munger and the Sun temples of Deo and elsewhere drawing enormous gatherings. It is equally central in Jharkhand, eastern Uttar Pradesh (Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Ballia) and Nepal's Madhesh and Terai, including Janakpur. Migration has carried the festival to Delhi's Yamuna ghats, Mumbai's Juhu beach, Kolkata's Hooghly banks and cities across India, where artificial ponds are built for the purpose. It is also celebrated by diaspora communities with roots in eastern India, from Mauritius to the United States.

Thekua, a crisp sweet of wheat flour, jaggery and ghee pressed in a wooden mould and fried, is the signature Chhath prasad. Kasar laddoos of rice flour and jaggery, rasiaav kheer, puris, and seasonal fruits such as banana, sweet lime, coconut, sugarcane, water chestnut, radish, turmeric and ginger plants fill the soop. Everything offered is produced or bought with special care, and much of it is shared with neighbours after the final arghya. The Chhath songs, sung by women in Bhojpuri, Maithili and Magahi as they cook, walk to the ghat and wait for the sun, are an inseparable part of the experience.

Chhath is an act of gratitude to the source of all life on earth, made without priest, idol or temple, by ordinary people standing in water. It honours both endings and beginnings: the sun that sets as well as the one that rises. The community work it inspires, as whole neighbourhoods clean ghats and help each other carry offerings, is part of its spirit, as is its emphasis on cleanliness of river and riverbank. For millions living far from home, it is also the festival that most strongly calls them back to their families.