East India · October–November
Also known as Chhath · Surya Shashthi · Dala Chhath · Chhathi Maiya Puja
When it’s celebrated
The exact date shifts each year — it’s fixed from the panchang. Cast your free kundli or check the calendar for this year’s muhurat.
Significance
Chhath Puja is an ancient festival of thanksgiving and prayer to the Sun god Surya and his sister Chhathi Maiya, seeking wellbeing, prosperity and the welfare of family and children. Renowned for its rigorous discipline, it is one of the few festivals where the setting Sun is worshipped before the rising Sun, expressing reverence for the Sun's life-giving and dissolving powers.
The story
Chhath worship of the Sun is rooted in deep antiquity, with references linking it to the Vedas and the Sun-worshipping traditions of figures like Karna, the son of Surya in the Mahabharata, and to Draupadi and the Pandavas, who are said to have performed Chhath to regain their fortunes. Chhathi Maiya, worshipped alongside Surya, is identified with the goddess of childbirth and protector of children, and the festival is observed for the longevity and prosperity of one's offspring and household.
Rituals
Across India
Chhath Puja is most prominent in Bihar, Jharkhand, eastern Uttar Pradesh and the Mithila region, and in Nepal's Terai, and has spread with migrants to cities across India and abroad. Riverbanks and ponds (ghats) become focal points of communal worship. A spring version, Chaiti Chhath, is also observed in the month of Chaitra, but the Kartik Chhath is the major celebration.
Questions
Chhath Puja is a festival of thanksgiving to the Sun god Surya and Chhathi Maiya, performed to seek the wellbeing, prosperity and longevity of one's family and children. It is observed with rigorous fasting and discipline.
The Sun god Surya is the central deity, worshipped alongside Chhathi Maiya, regarded as his sister and the protector of children.
The main day falls on the sixth tithi (Shashthi) of the bright fortnight of Kartik, usually in October or November, within a four-day festival. The date changes each year with the Hindu lunar calendar.
Devotees observe a four-day ritual of bathing and sattvic eating (Nahay Khay), a fast broken with kheer (Kharna), then a strict waterless fast while offering arghya to the setting Sun and, the next morning, to the rising Sun, standing in rivers or ponds.
Chhath is one of the rare festivals where the setting Sun is honoured before the rising Sun, expressing gratitude for both the Sun's dissolving and renewing powers and acknowledging that even in decline the Sun is revered.
Book a pooja in your name, find the muhurat, or read the day’s panchang — bring the festival into your own practice.
