Chhath Puja 2026छठ पूजा

When is Chhath Puja?

Observed on Shukla Shashthi, Kartik month. Dates follow the Panchang for New Delhi and can differ by a day in other places — check the Panchang for your city.

What Chhath Puja means

Chhath is the great festival of Surya, the visible god who sustains all life, and of Chhathi Maiya, worshipped as his sister or as the goddess who protects children. It is kept over four days with a discipline few festivals ask for: purity of food and home, a long nirjala fast, and offerings made while standing in water at sunset and at sunrise.

What makes Chhath remarkable is its simplicity. There are no idols and no priest is needed. The offerings — thekua, rice laddoo, sugarcane, fruits and vegetables of the season — come straight from the fields, and they are made to the setting sun as well as the rising one: a thanksgiving for what the day has given, and a prayer for the day to come.

The vrati (the person keeping the fast) is honoured by the whole community. Neighbours clean the roads to the ghat, families sing the old Chhath geet together, and people who cannot fast help carry the bamboo baskets (daura and soop) to the water.

The story of Chhath Puja

The worship of the sun at dawn and dusk is as old as the Vedas, and several stories are told of Chhath. In the Ramayana, Sita is said to have kept the vrat on her return to Ayodhya. In the Mahabharata, Karna, the son of Surya, stood in water each day offering arghya to his father, and Draupadi with the Pandavas kept the fast to win back their kingdom.

Chhathi Maiya is identified with Shashthi Devi, the goddess of the sixth day who protects newborn children; this is why so many keep the fast for the well-being of their children and family, and why the vrat continues for generations once a family takes it up.

Chhath Puja puja vidhi, step by step

Chhath is observed over four days, from Kartik Shukla Chaturthi to Saptami. The rules of purity are strict: the kitchen is cleaned, food is cooked fresh without onion or garlic, usually on a new or clean earthen stove, and prasad is never tasted before it is offered.

What you need

• Bamboo baskets (daura) and winnowing trays (soop), or brass ones
• Thekua (wheat flour, jaggery and ghee), rice laddoo (kasar)
• Sugarcane, coconut, banana, sweet lime, water chestnut, radish, sweet potato, turmeric and ginger plants
• A new cotton sari or dhoti for the vrati
• Diyas, ghee, vermilion, flowers and incense
• A copper or brass lota for the arghya, with milk and water
• Arwa rice, chana dal and lauki (bottle gourd) for Nahay-Khay; jaggery and rice for Kharna kheer

When to do the puja

The evening arghya is offered at sunset on Shashthi and the morning arghya at sunrise on Saptami. Sunrise and sunset times differ by city — check the Panchang for yours. See the Panchang for your city.

Steps

1. Day 1 — Nahay-Khay. The vrati bathes in a river or pond (or at home), cleans the house and eats one sattvic meal: arwa rice, chana dal and lauki cooked in ghee with rock salt.
2. Day 2 — Kharna (Lohanda). A fast through the day; in the evening the vrati offers and eats kheer of jaggery and rice with roti, then begins the 36-hour nirjala fast. The prasad is shared with the family.
3. Day 3 — prepare the prasad. Thekua and kasar are made at home. The baskets are filled with the prasad, fruits and vegetables and covered with a cloth.
4. Day 3 evening — Sandhya Arghya. The family walks to the ghat singing Chhath geet. The vrati stands in the water and offers arghya of milk and water to the setting sun, raising the soop with the prasad.
5. Kosi (where kept). Families who have made a vow light a kosi at night — clay lamps arranged under a canopy of sugarcane.
6. Day 4 — Usha Arghya. Before dawn the family returns to the ghat. The vrati stands in the water and offers arghya to the rising sun.
7. Parana. The vrati breaks the fast with ginger, water and prasad, and the prasad is distributed to everyone — it is considered especially blessed.

Offerings & food: Thekua (wheat-jaggery biscuits), kasar, coconut, sugarcane, 5 types of fruits, radish, sweet potato

Mantras for Chhath Puja

Chhath Puja across India

Grandest in Bihar, Jharkhand, Eastern UP, Nepal's Terai. Spread to Mumbai, Delhi (large Bihari diaspora). Each riverbank in the region becomes a mass puja site.

Bihar and Jharkhand

Chhath is the region's greatest festival. Patna's ghats on the Ganga, Deo's Surya temple and Ulao in Begusarai draw lakhs of devotees.

Eastern Uttar Pradesh

Varanasi, Ballia and Gorakhpur keep Chhath on the ghats with the same four-day rhythm.

Nepal (Terai)

Janakpur and the Mithila region celebrate Chhath as a major festival; it is a public holiday.

Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and abroad

Purvanchali families create ghats on the Yamuna, at Juhu beach, on the Hooghly — and in ponds and pools from Mauritius to New Jersey.

Chaiti Chhath

A second, smaller Chhath is kept in Chaitra (March–April) by many families.

Prayers to recite

Do’s and don’ts

Temples to visit for Chhath Puja

Konark Sun TempleKonark, Odisha

Frequently asked questions