Chhath Puja 2026

What this countdown tracks

Chhath Puja 2026 — the four-day Vedic festival of thanksgiving to Surya the Sun god — with the principal day, Sandhya Arghya, falling on Sunday, November 15, 2026. Observed by tens of millions across Bihar, Jharkhand, eastern Uttar Pradesh, and the Mithilanchal diaspora worldwide.

About this festival

Chhath Puja is one of the oldest extant Vedic-era festivals, with hymns to Surya in the Rigveda providing direct textual continuity. The festival worships Surya — the Sun — together with his consort Usha (dawn) and his sister Chhathi Maiya, the goddess of childbirth and child welfare. It is observed without idols, priests, mediation or temples — just direct worship of the visible Sun, performed by the family at a riverbank, pond, or other water body.

The four-day sequence falls on Kartika Shukla Chaturthi to Saptami (the 4th to 7th lunar days of the bright fortnight of Kartika). Day 1 (Nahay-Khay) involves a ritual bath and a single sattvic meal. Day 2 (Lohanda or Kharna) requires a 24-hour waterless fast that is broken in the evening with kheer made from new-harvest rice and jaggery. Day 3 (Sandhya Arghya) is the festival's most photographed moment — the entire family gathers at a river or pond at sunset, and the vrati (the woman or man observing the fast) stands waist-deep in water and offers the first arghya to the setting Sun. Day 4 (Usha Arghya) repeats the offering at sunrise the following morning.

The festival is unique in two ways. First, it explicitly worships the setting as well as the rising Sun — the only major Hindu festival to do so. Second, the entire 36-hour observance from Kharna onward is performed without food and without water, making it one of the most physically demanding fasts in the Hindu calendar.

How it's observed

The visual signature of Chhath Puja is hundreds of thousands of women in red or yellow saris standing in lines at riverbank ghats during sunset and sunrise, holding bamboo soop (winnowing baskets) filled with thekua (sweet wheat-flour cookies), bananas, sugarcane, coconuts and seasonal fruits. The Ganga ghats of Patna — Gandhi Ghat, Kali Ghat, NIT Ghat — and the river fronts of Varanasi, Bhagalpur, Munger, and Begusarai become enormous open-air pujas with millions of participants. Smaller riverbanks, village ponds, and city park reservoirs host neighbourhood gatherings.

The festival's foods are distinctive. Thekua, the flagship prasad, is a deep-fried wheat-flour-and-jaggery cookie shaped in wooden moulds; it is prepared in clean kitchens with strict purity rules and distributed widely. New-harvest rice kheer, sugarcane, raw turmeric and ginger root, ber (Indian jujube) and seasonal greens make up the offerings.

Chhath Puja is a public holiday in Bihar, Jharkhand and eastern UP. The diaspora — particularly Bihari and Mithilanchali communities in Mumbai, Delhi, the US, the UK, Mauritius, Trinidad, and the Gulf — recreates the festival at suburban lakes, swimming pools and reservoirs. Mumbai's Juhu beach and Mira-Bhayandar reservoirs host some of the largest non-Bihar Chhath gatherings.

Past observances

• November 5, 2025 — Chhath Puja 2025 (Sandhya Arghya day)
• November 7, 2024 — Chhath Puja 2024
• November 19, 2023 — Chhath Puja 2023
• October 30, 2022 — Chhath Puja 2022
• November 10, 2021 — Chhath Puja 2021
• November 20, 2020 — Chhath Puja 2020

How to observe

Drik Panchang and the Bihar government's Chhath Puja portal publish exact arghya timings for cities. Doordarshan Bihar and Sahara Samay broadcast the major Patna ghats live. The Bihari and Mithilanchali diaspora associations in Mumbai, the UK, the US, and Mauritius organise community Chhath gatherings. Indian Railways operates special Chhath Puja trains from Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Surat, Ahmedabad and Bangalore back to Bihar — booked out within minutes of opening months in advance.

Related countdowns

Chhath Puja follows Diwali 2026 by about a week and shares the broader Kartika observances. Pair with Raksha Bandhan 2026, Ratha Yatra 2026 and Pongal 2026 on the wider Hindu festival calendar.

FAQ

When is Chhath Puja 2026? The four-day festival runs November 13–16, 2026; the principal Sandhya Arghya day is Sunday, November 15. What's the fast like? From the evening of Day 2 (Kharna) to the morning of Day 4 (Usha Arghya) — about 36 hours without food or water. Where is Chhath Puja most observed? Bihar, Jharkhand, eastern Uttar Pradesh, Nepal, and the global Bihari and Mithilanchali diaspora. Why is sunset worshipped? Chhath is the only major Hindu festival to formally worship the setting Sun (Sandhya Arghya) alongside the rising Sun (Usha Arghya); both are seen as forms of Surya.