Chhath Puja

Four days of the hardest household fast in the tradition, and the only widely kept rite that offers to the setting sun before the rising one.

Chhath has no priest, no image and no temple: the offering is made by the fasting person, standing in a river, to something visibly present. It is also ecologically exact — the prasad is entirely seasonal, the vessels are bamboo and clay, and the site is the shared riverbank.

• Anyone who wishes to honour Surya and Chhathi Maiya may observe it; there is no requirement of initiation or priesthood for the home version.
• Families often keep the fast together, while children, elders, pregnant or unwell people take a lighter form — fruit, milk, or simply the puja without fasting.
• In many families the observance passes down through the women of the house or through a family tradition tied to Surya and Chhathi Maiya; follow your family's custom where it differs from the general description here.

1. 1Bathe, wear clean clothes and clear a small space for the deity.
2. 2Light a lamp and an incense stick, and offer water, flowers and a simple sweet from the samagri list below.
3. 3Say Surya and Chhathi Maiya's name or the mantra on this page eleven times, with your intention for the day.
4. 4Read the short katha on this page aloud, offer the bhog, and share the prasad.
5. 5Keep the day's food rule as far as your health allows, and end it gently the next morning.

Thirty-six hours nirjala — without food or water — from Kharna's evening meal to the morning arghya. Physically the most demanding vrat in common practice.

• ×Fixing the puja by the clock instead of the tithi. Shukla Chaturthi to Saptami can begin or end part-way through the day in your city, so check your Panchang the evening before.
• ×Gathering samagri on the morning itself. Items such as bamboo soop and daura baskets and thekua, rice laddoo, seasonal fruit — sugarcane, banana, coconut, water chestnut are often unavailable at the last minute.
• ×Breaking the fast heavily or at the wrong moment. Parana is meant to be gentle — water, fruit or prasad first — and is kept within the window your tradition follows.
• ×Taking one region's practice as the only correct one. Kept most widely in Bihar, Jharkhand, eastern Uttar Pradesh, Nepal's Terai and by their diaspora.
• ×Rushing the steps without knowing why each one is done, which makes the observance hard to repeat next year.

Kept most widely in Bihar, Jharkhand, eastern Uttar Pradesh, Nepal's Terai and by their diaspora. A second Chhath is kept in Chaitra. Whether Chhathi Maiya is Surya's sister, Shashthi Devi, or Usha differs by locality.

Regional scope

Pan-Indian practice, with regional notes given above

Last reviewed

September 2026

Reviewed by

DharmaPath editorial team, from traditional texts and household practice

Explanations here are written in our own words from traditional sources; timings, muhurta and local custom should be confirmed with your Panchang or family priest.