Chhath Puja 2026

Chhath Puja: Offering Arghya to the Sun God

Chhath Puja is a festival of Sun worship whose main day is Kartika Shukla Shashti. Over four days after Deepavali, from Chavithi to Saptami, devotees worship Surya and Chhathi Maiya. It is the biggest festival of the people of Bihar, Jharkhand, eastern Uttar Pradesh and the Mithila and Bhojpuri regions of Nepal.

Background

The word Chhath is said to come from Shashti, the sixth day. Along with the Sun, devotees worship Chhathi Maiya, regarded as a protector of children. Folk traditions link the festival to Karna, the son of Surya, who offered arghya to the Sun standing in water every day, and to Draupadi, who is said to have worshipped the Sun when the Pandavas were in hardship. Its special feature is direct worship of the Sun as a force of nature, without idols.

The Four Days

• Nahay Khay (Chavithi): A river bath, cleaning the home and a single satvik meal.
• Kharna (Panchami): A day-long fast, broken in the evening with jaggery kheer and roti offered as naivedyam.
• Sandhya Arghya (Shashti): A fast without even water, and arghya to the setting Sun at a riverbank.
• Usha Arghya (Saptami): Arghya to the rising Sun at dawn, after which the fast is broken.

Bamboo baskets with thekua (a sweet), sugarcane, bananas and coconut are offered while standing in water.

For Telugu Readers

Chhath is not a traditional Telugu festival, but Bihari and Uttar Pradesh families settled in Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam and other cities celebrate it devotedly on lake shores. It can be understood as their great Sun festival, much as Ratha Saptami is for us.

Significance

Chhath stands for gratitude, discipline and purity. It is a salute to the Sun that gives life and to the water that sustains it.

May Surya Narayana bless everyone with health, radiance and happiness.