Nahay Khay 2026

Chhath Puja

What is Chhath Puja?

Chhath Puja is the worship of Surya, the Sun, and Chhathi Maiya, kept for four days for the health and prosperity of the family. It is the great festival of Bihar, Jharkhand, eastern Uttar Pradesh and the Terai of Nepal, and is celebrated wherever their people live, on river banks, lakes and ponds. Its heart is the arghya: offerings of water and soop baskets of thekua, fruit and sugarcane to the setting and the rising Sun, standing in water.

The main Chhath is in Kartika, six days after Diwali. Chaiti Chhath is kept in the same way in Chaitra (March–April).

The four days

Chhath is fixed by the Shukla Shashthi of Kartika (or Chaitra), the day Shashthi prevails at sunrise:

1. Nahay Khay (two days before): a holy bath and one sattvic meal, usually rice, chana dal and lauki.
2. Kharna (the day before): a fast all day, broken in the evening with kheer made with jaggery and roti, offered first to Chhathi Maiya. The 36-hour fast without water begins after it.
3. Sandhya Arghya (Shashthi): arghya to the setting Sun, at sunset.
4. Usha Arghya (the next morning): arghya to the rising Sun, at sunrise, after which the fast is broken.

The dates and the sunset and sunrise times on this page are for your location.