When is Chhath Puja 2026?

Sunday, 15 November 2026. It is Shashti of Shukla paksha in Kartika, and that tithi runs from 14 Nov, 11:25 PM to 16 Nov, 2:01 AM.

Three honest reasons. The tithi can be running at the deciding moment on two days or on none. North India reckons the month purnimanta and the south and west amanta, which names the same krishna fortnight differently. And almanacs differ on which moment of the day decides an observance. The instants above are the astronomy; the day is an interpretation of them.

Chhath is a four-day festival of the Sun and of Chhathi Maiya, kept mainly in Bihar, Jharkhand, eastern Uttar Pradesh and Nepal's Terai. Vratis keep a waterless fast of about thirty-six hours and offer arghya standing in water to the setting sun on Shashthi and the rising sun on Saptami, praying for their children and family.

Day one, Nahay Khay (13 Nov, 6:05 AM): bath and one pure meal. Day two, Kharna (14 Nov, 5:01 PM): daylong fast, then jaggery kheer and roti after sunset, after which the waterless fast begins. Day three: the Sandhya Arghya to the setting sun on Sunday, 15 November 2026 (5:01 PM). Day four: the Usha Arghya at sunrise (16 Nov, 6:07 AM) and the paran.

In Patna the Sandhya Arghya to the setting sun is at 5:01 PM on Sunday, 15 November 2026, and the Usha Arghya to the rising sun is at 16 Nov, 6:07 AM the next morning. These are the city's sunset and sunrise, so reach the ghat early: the arghya is poured as the sun touches the horizon.

Kharna, also called Lohanda, is the second day. The vrati fasts all day and, after sunset (14 Nov, 5:01 PM), cooks kheer of rice and milk sweetened with jaggery, and wheat rotis, on a clean clay chulha, offers them to Chhathi Maiya and eats them in quiet. The prasad is shared, and the waterless fast of about thirty-six hours begins.

Nahay Khay, bathe and eat, is the first day (13 Nov, 6:05 AM). The vrati bathes, cleans the house and eats a single sattvik meal of arwa rice, chana dal and lauki cooked in ghee with rock salt. Lauki is light, cooling and counted among the purest vegetables, which is why it opens the fast; the family eats after the vrati.

Melt jaggery in a little water, mix it with wheat flour, ghee for richness, a little grated dry coconut and fennel, and knead a stiff dough. Press small rounds in the wooden thekua mould and fry slowly in ghee or oil till golden and crisp. For Chhath it is made in a clean kitchen without tasting, and offered before anyone eats it.

Bamboo soop and a daura, sugarcane, a bunch of bananas, coconut, the big seasonal citrus, sweet potato, suthni, radish, water chestnut, fresh turmeric and ginger plants, apples and oranges, thekua and kasar, a copper lota for the arghya, clay lamps, sindoor, and wheat, jaggery, ghee, rice and milk for the prasad. The full list above has notes.

From Nahay Khay the house cooks without onion or garlic; the prasad is made on a clean stove by people who have bathed, and nothing is tasted before it is offered. After the Kharna prasad the vrati takes no food or water until after the Usha Arghya, sleeps on the floor and wears clean, traditionally unstitched clothes.

The vrati stands in the water up to the waist, facing the sun, holding the soop of offerings with a lit lamp. Family members pour water, or milk mixed with water, from a lota over the soop as the sun sets or rises, while the vrati prays; the Surya arghya mantra can be said. After the morning arghya the vrati prays to Chhathi Maiya and breaks the fast.

Chhathi Maiya is Shashthi Devi, the goddess who protects children, identified in the Brahmavaivarta Purana with Devasena, the sixth part of Prakriti. Folk belief calls her the sister of Surya. Mothers pray to her at Chhath for their children's long life and health, as they do on the sixth day after a birth.

To thank the Sun for light, warmth and the harvest, and to pray to Chhathi Maiya for the well-being of children and family. Vows made to her are fulfilled at Chhath, often with the kosi. Its strict purity and the long waterless fast make it, for its devotees, the greatest of vrats, the mahaparv.

There is no single answer. The Brahmavaivarta Purana gives the worship of Shashthi Devi to King Priyavrat; popular legends say Sita kept the vrat at Munger after the exile, that Draupadi kept it for the Pandavas, and that Karna worshipped the Sun standing in water every day. Deo in Aurangabad and Munger both claim the oldest Chhath tradition.

When a vow made to Chhathi Maiya is fulfilled, the family fills the kosi on the night of the Sandhya Arghya: five or more sugarcane stalks are tied into a canopy, and earthen lamps and offerings are placed beneath it in the courtyard, and again at the ghat before dawn, while the women sing Chhath songs.

Anyone who can keep its discipline: women and men, married or not. Usually one or two members of a family keep the fast and the rest support them. Those who cannot fast for health reasons take part by cooking, carrying the offerings, offering arghya with the family and sharing the prasad.

Chaiti Chhath is the second Chhath of the year, on Chaitra Shukla Shashthi in spring, kept with the same four days of Nahay Khay, Kharna, Sandhya Arghya and Usha Arghya. Fewer families keep it than the Kartika Chhath, which is the main festival.

After the Usha Arghya and the prayer to Chhathi Maiya, the vrati breaks the fast gently, with water and a little of the prasad, thekua or fruit; some families take ginger with jaggery first. A full meal comes later in the day, after the prasad has been shared with everyone.