Families from Nepal's Madhesh and Terai are observing Chhath Puja starting from today, a four day festival dedicated to Surya, the Sun God and to the Chhathi Maiya, a goddess associated with the protection of children and the well-being of the family.
Unlike many Hindu festivals, Chhath is performed mostly outdoors, at rivers, ponds and lakes, and the central rituals generally do not need a priest or temple. The best known part of the festival is that devotees offer prayers to both the setting and the rising Sun while standing in water.
The four day
Nahay Khay: The first day is for purification. Devotees bathe, often in a river or pond, clean the house and the kitchen, and cook a simple vegetarian meal with great attention to cleanliness.
Kharna: On the second day the devotee fasts, traditionally without food or water, until sunset. After a bath and prayers, the fast is broken with prasad. Common offerings are kheer made with jaggery, roti, often prepared without ordinary salt, and bananas or other fruit. The prasad is shared with family and others.
Sandhya Arghya:On the third day, families fill bamboo baskets with fruit, thekua, sugarcane, coconut and other seasonal produce and carry them to the water. At dusk, devotees stand in the water, offer water and prayers to the setting Sun and sing traditional songs. In some families and regions, a Kosi Puja follows, in which a structure of sugarcane stalks is decorated with lamps and offerings. It is linked in some traditions to a new child or a marriage, and not every family observes it.
Usha Arghya: Before sunrise on the fourth day, devotees return to the water and offer arghya to the rising Sun, praying for the health and prosperity of the family and children. The fast is then broken in a rite called Parana, and prasad is shared with relatives and neighbours.
The principal devotee, called the vrati, is the one keeping an approximately 36-hour fast without food or water from after Kharna until the morning offering. Not everyone observes the same fast, and other family members take part according to custom. A prolonged waterless fast can cause dehydration and other medical problems, particularly in heat or for people with certain conditions, and it is not a requirement for everyone.
Women are the most visible vratis, but men also observe the fast, and the festival is a collective effort. Children go to the ghat with their parents and grandparents, relatives prepare the offerings, and neighbours organise public arrangements.
Why the setting Sun
The evening offering is explained as gratitude for the day’s light and warmth and respect for nature at every stage of its cycle. The dawn offering stands for renewal and hope. Together they are read as a reminder that every ending can lead to a new beginning.
Thekua and the offerings
The signature sweet is thekua, made from wheat flour, jaggery or sugar, and ghee or oil, sometimes with cardamom. The dough is pressed into patterned wooden moulds in many households and deep-fried, and preparing it is often a family activity. Other offerings include bananas for abundance, sugarcane for fertility and prosperity, coconut for purity, rice, jaggery, seasonal fruit, bamboo soop and earthen lamps. Most are crops from the post-monsoon harvest, and the festival is also seen as an expression of gratitude for sunlight, water and fertile land.
Where it comes from
Chhath belongs to a long tradition of Sun worship in South Asia, which appears in ancient Hindu literature including the Rig Veda. Its exact founding date, and the age of today’s four-day form, cannot be established. Claims that it is precisely 3,000 or 5,000 years old are not supported by documentary or archaeological evidence.
Several stories are told to explain it:
Karna: In the Mahabharata, Karna, the son of Kunti and Surya, was a devotee of the Sun. Linking his worship to the full four-day Chhath is a later association.
Draupadi and the Pandavas: During their exile, Draupadi is said to have been advised to worship Surya and fast, which is believed to have helped them overcome their troubles.
Rama and Sita: Some traditions say they worshipped Surya after returning to Ayodhya. Some regional traditions in Mithila also link Sita to Chhath.
King Priyavrat and Queen Malini: In an account associated with the Brahmavaivarta Purana, the childless couple performed a ritual and the queen’s child was stillborn. In her grief she went toward a river, where a divine woman who identified herself as Devasena, or Shashthi, told her to worship her and the Sun. The queen later had a child. The story is used to explain Chhathi Maiya’s association with children and fertility. Traditions differ on the goddess’s identity, and some call her Surya’s sister.
The name comes from the Sanskrit Shashthi, the sixth lunar day, when the main worship takes place. The festival is also called Surya Shashthi, Chhath Parva, Chhathi Puja and Dala Chhath. Besides the main Kartik observance in October or November, some families keep Chaiti Chhath in March or April.
A festival of the plains, now in the city
Chhath is closely tied to Maithili, Bhojpuri, Tharu and other communities of the Madhesh and Terai, as well as Bihar, Jharkhand and eastern Uttar Pradesh in India. Large celebrations take place in Janakpur, Birgunj, Biratnagar, Rajbiraj and Lahan. Migration and urbanisation have brought it to Kathmandu Valley, where devotees gather at the Bagmati, ponds and designated ghats, and where people from the hills and the plains increasingly take part or watch.
For many families it is a reason to return to ancestral villages. Children learn the rituals, recipes and songs, and migrants reconnect with relatives.
The festival is generally seen as open across social groups, since the Sun is visible to all and the offerings are mostly local produce. Practice and access to ghats can still differ locally.
Livelihoods and the environment
The season brings demand for bamboo baskets and soop, sugarcane, bananas, coconuts, sweets, earthen lamps and flowers, supporting small vendors, farmers and bamboo artisans.
Many traditional materials are biodegradable, including bamboo, banana leaves, earthen lamps and natural flowers. Communities traditionally clean ponds and riverbanks beforehand. Modern celebrations bring plastic waste, non-biodegradable decorations, water pollution, poor sanitation at crowded ghats and noise and firecrackers in some places. Large urban gatherings also need safe access to water, lighting, crowd management, medical services and waste collection.
