Chhath Puja 2026: Date, Sunrise and Sunset Arghya Time, Puja Vidhi and Significance
Chhath Puja 2026 falls on Sunday, November 15, 2026, observed on Shashti Tithi of Shukla Paksha in the Kartik month. One of the oldest and most demanding Hindu festivals, Chhath Puja is a four-day ritual dedicated to Surya Dev, the Sun God and Chhathi Maiya, the goddess who governs the sixth day after birth and is believed to protect children and grant long life. Unlike most Hindu festivals, Chhath Puja has no idol worship, no priests, and no elaborate temple ceremonies. Devotees stand in open water rivers, ponds, or seas and offer Arghya directly to the sun at sunset and sunrise. Below you will find the exact date, Tithi timing, sunset and sunrise Arghya times, the four-day ritual sequence, puja vidhi, vrat katha, the story behind the festival, and how Chhath Puja is observed across India.
Chhath Puja 2026 At a Glance
| Detail | Timing / Info |
|---|---|
| Festival | Chhath Puja / Chhathi Puja / Surya Shashti |
| Main Day (Sandhya Arghya) | Sunday, November 15, 2026 |
| Hindu Month | Kartik |
| Tithi | Shukla Paksha Shashti |
| Shashti Tithi Begins | Saturday, November 14, 2026 at 11:24 PM |
| Shashti Tithi Ends | Monday, November 16, 2026 at 2:01 AM |
| Sandhya Arghya (Sunset Offering) | 05:58 PM |
| Usha Arghya (Sunrise Offering) | 06:50 AM |
Chhath Puja Date and Arghya Timings 2026
Chhath Puja is observed on the Shashti Tithi of the Shukla Paksha in the Kartik month. The festival runs across four days Nahay Khay, Kharna, Sandhya Arghya, and Usha Arghya with the main rituals of sunset and sunrise offerings taking place on the third and fourth days. This year, the Shashti Tithi begins at Saturday, November 14, 2026 at 11:24 PM and ends at Monday, November 16, 2026 at 2:01 AM, with the Sandhya Arghya day falling on Sunday, November 15, 2026.
The Sandhya Arghya, the evening offering to the setting sun, takes place at 05:58 PM this year. Devotees must be standing in the water before this time, thali and offerings in hand, facing west to receive the setting sun. The Usha Arghya, the morning offering to the rising sun, takes place the following morning at 06:50 AM. Both timings are critical. the entire purpose of the festival builds toward these two moments of direct communion with the sun, one at its setting and one at its rising.
What Is Chhath Puja
Chhath Puja, also called Chhathi Puja and Surya Shashti, is a four-day festival dedicated to the worship of the Sun God and Chhathi Maiya. The word Chhath means the sixth day in Hindi, and the festival is named for the Shashti Tithi on which the main Arghya offering is made. It is primarily observed in Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, and the Terai region of Nepal, but has spread significantly with the migration of these communities to cities across India and abroad.
What makes Chhath Puja distinct from nearly every other Hindu festival is its austerity. The vrat observed by devotees — almost always women, though men also participate — is one of the most physically demanding fasts in the Hindu calendar. Devotees observe a nirjala fast for thirty-six hours, standing in water for extended periods, and performing the Arghya in open air regardless of weather. There are no shortcuts, no substitutes, and no priest intermediaries. The devotee stands directly before the sun and makes the offering herself.
The Story Behind Chhath Puja
There are several stories connected to the origin of Chhath Puja, each from a different text or tradition, and the festival may predate the stories that have been attached to it.
The most widely told version connects Chhath Puja to the Mahabharata. Karna, the son of Surya Dev and the greatest archer of the epic, was known to stand in water each morning and make offerings to his father the sun. He would give generously to anyone who asked for alms while he stood in the river performing his prayers. This practice of standing in water at sunrise and offering Arghya is directly connected to Karna's tradition. Chhath Puja is seen as a continuation and formalisation of this ancient practice of direct sun worship.
A second story comes from the Ramayana tradition. After Lord Rama and Sita returned to Ayodhya following their fourteen years of exile, they broke their fast with khichdi on Kartik Shukla Shashti. To celebrate their return, Sita performed puja of the Sun God with her family, fasting through the day and offering Arghya at sunrise and sunset. This version of the origin connects Chhath Puja directly to the Diwali-Kartik season in which it falls.
A third story involves Draupadi from the Mahabharata. When the Pandavas were in exile and facing hardships, Draupadi, on the advice of the sage Dhaumya, worshipped the Sun God on Kartik Shashti. Through her sincere worship and fasting, she received the blessings that helped the Pandavas through their trials. This story connects Chhath Puja to the tradition of women's fasting for the wellbeing of their families.
A fourth version, from the Puranas, speaks of a king named Priyavrat and his wife Malini, who lost their newborn child. In grief, the mother found the child at the edge of a river, where a divine woman appeared — identified as Mata Shashthi or Chhathi Maiya, the goddess who protects children born six days after their birth. The child was restored to life, and Priyavrat and Malini began the tradition of worshipping Chhathi Maiya on Kartik Shashti. This story explains the connection between Chhath Puja and the protection of children and family.
The Four Days of Chhath Puja
Chhath Puja is a four-day observance, and each day has a specific name, ritual, and significance. The vrat begins on the fourth day of Kartik Shukla Paksha and concludes on the seventh.
Day 1 — Nahay Khay (Chaturthi): The first day is called Nahay Khay, which means bathe and eat. Devotees wake before sunrise, take a holy bath — preferably in a river or sacred water body — and then eat one simple meal. The food on this day is prepared without onion, garlic, or salt and is cooked in a specific way using copper or earthen vessels. The most common meal is chana dal with lauki (bottle gourd) and rice. After eating this one meal, the devotee fasts until the vrat is fully completed.
Day 2 — Kharna (Panchami): The second day is Kharna, a day of complete fasting until the evening. In the evening, the devotee prepares Kheer — a sweet rice pudding made with jaggery, not sugar — and chapati or Thekua. This meal is offered to the Sun God and then shared with family as prasad. The Kharna meal is the last food eaten before the thirty-six-hour nirjala fast begins. After eating, the devotee fasts completely without food or water until the Usha Arghya on the fourth morning.
Day 3 — Sandhya Arghya (Shashti): The third and most visible day of Chhath Puja is the Sandhya Arghya, the evening offering to the setting sun. This is the main day of the festival. Devotees carry bamboo baskets called Soop or Daura filled with offerings: Thekua, seasonal fruits such as sugarcane, bananas, oranges, coconut, sweet potato, and various sweets to the river bank or water body. They stand in the water facing west and offer Arghya to the setting sun as it descends below the horizon. This year, the Sandhya Arghya sunset time is 05:58 PM.
Day 4 — Usha Arghya (Saptami): The fourth and final day is the Usha Arghya, the morning offering to the rising sun. Devotees return to the water before sunrise, carrying the same offerings, and stand in the water facing east, waiting for the sun to rise. When the first rays appear, they offer Arghya to the rising sun. This year, the Usha Arghya sunrise time is 06:50 AM. After the Usha Arghya, the vrat is broken, and the devotee eats the prasad Thekua, fruits, and other offered items — to end the thirty-six-hour fast.
Chhath Puja Offerings — What Goes in the Soop
The offerings carried to the river for Chhath Puja Arghya are called Prasad, and the bamboo basket in which they are arranged is called Soop or Daura. The selection of offerings is specific and deeply traditional. Each item has its reason for being included, and families take considerable care in sourcing and preparing the Prasad.
Thekua is the most important Chhath Puja offering. It is a hard biscuit-like sweet made from wheat flour, jaggery, and ghee, shaped by hand or in a mould, and fried or baked. Thekua is exclusively made for Chhath Puja. it is not a general festival sweet, and making it is a household ritual in itself. Women spend hours preparing Thekua in the days before the festival.
Sugarcane is included as whole stalks; the sun is associated with sugarcane, which grows through photosynthesis and represents the direct gift of sunlight converted to sweetness. Coconut, bananas, oranges, sweet potato, arbi (colocasia), and seasonal fruits round out the Prasad. All items must be fresh, untouched by any contamination, and prepared with complete cleanliness.
The Soop itself, the large, shallow bamboo basket, is cleaned and sometimes decorated before being packed. The arrangement of the offerings in the Soop follows a specific pattern, with Thekua placed prominently, fruits arranged carefully, and sugarcane stalks forming a frame around the whole basket. Many families also include a small earthen lamp in the Soop.
Chhath Puja Puja Vidhi
The puja on Chhath does not follow a priest-led temple format. The devotee is the priest. The preparation begins in the home with cleaning the kitchen and cooking area completely, after which all Chhath food is prepared exclusively in copper, brass, or earthen vessels. No iron or non-stick cookware is used during the Chhath preparation.
On the day of Sandhya Arghya, devotees bathe, dress in yellow or orange sarees or traditional attire — both colours are associated with the sun and pack the Soop with offerings. The family accompanies the devotee to the ghat or water body in a procession, often with devotional Chhath songs playing or being sung. The songs — called Chhath Geet are a distinct and emotionally powerful musical tradition, with lyrics that call to the sun and Chhathi Maiya for blessings of health, children, and long life for the family.
At the water's edge, the devotee enters the water to stand knee-deep or waist-deep. She places the Soop in the water and lifts it as an offering while facing the setting sun, accompanied by other devotees doing the same. The moment of Arghya is silent no formal mantra is required, though many devotees chant Om Suryaya Namah or simply hold their attention on the sun with gratitude and prayer. After the Sandhya Arghya, the devotee stays at or near the ghat through the night or returns home and comes back before sunrise for the Usha Arghya.
Chhath Geet — The Songs of Chhath
The music of Chhath Puja is one of its most distinctive elements. Chhath Geet are devotional songs in Bhojpuri, Maithili, and Magahi that are sung specifically during the four days of the festival. These songs are not from any composed text they are folk songs passed down orally through generations of women in Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh, and they describe the journey to the ghat, the beauty of the setting sun, the offerings placed in the Soop, and the blessings asked of Chhathi Maiya.
Some of the most beloved Chhath Geet include Kelwa Ke Paat Par, which describes an orange tree by the water where the sun rests and Kaanche Hi Baaans Ke Bahangiya which describes the bamboo pole used to carry the Soop to the river. These songs are immediately recognisable to anyone from Bihar or eastern UP, and hearing them begins the emotional build-up of the festival long before the Arghya day arrives.
In recent decades, Chhath Geet have moved beyond the ghats. They play on speakers across neighbourhoods during the festival days, and many popular film versions of Chhath songs now reach audiences across India who are not from the Chhath-observing communities.
Why Chhath Puja Has No Idol and No Priest
One of the most striking aspects of Chhath Puja is that it has no idol, no temple, and no priest. The sun is worshipped directly in its natural form, and the water body river, pond, or sea is the only temple needed. This makes Chhath Puja one of the most ancient and elemental forms of Hindu worship, pre-dating the tradition of idol-based temple worship that came later.
The absence of a priest means the devotee's own preparation, sincerity, and physical endurance are the only things that matter. There is no ritual shortcut, no substitute material, and no paid performer of the puja. The thirty-six hour fast, the standing in cold water, the carrying of the heavy Soop all of it is done by the devotee directly. This direct relationship between the devotee and the deity, with no intermediary, is what gives Chhath Puja its particular intensity and the sense among those who observe it that the sun has truly received their offering.
Chhath Puja and the Setting Sun
Most sun worship traditions focus on the rising sun the sun at its strongest, ascending, full of power. Chhath Puja makes an offering to the setting sun first, and this is intentional. The setting sun that is about to disappear, that is weaker, that is completing its cycle is seen in Chhath tradition as equally deserving of gratitude. Worship of the setting sun is an acknowledgement that the declining and the departing deserve the same reverence as the ascending and the powerful.
This philosophical dimension of Chhath — the equal worship of the sun in its setting as in its rising makes it unusual in Hindu festival tradition and gives the festival a depth that goes beyond the seasonal agricultural significance of sun worship. The offering to the setting sun at Sandhya Arghya is in some ways the harder of the two, made while fasting and as darkness approaches, and it carries a particular emotional weight that many devotees describe as the most moving moment of the four days.
Chhath Puja Across India
Bihar is the spiritual home of Chhath Puja. The ghats along the Ganga in Patna, particularly Gandhi Ghat and Collectorate Ghat, fill with millions of devotees during the Sandhya Arghya and Usha Arghya. The Bihar government declares a public holiday for the festival, and the preparations across the state begin weeks in advance. Every family observing Chhath has its own variations in the songs sung and the specific offerings prepared, but the core ritual is identical across the state.
In Delhi, Chhath Puja has become one of the largest festivals observed by the city's massive Bihari and eastern UP migrant population. The Yamuna ghats and purpose-built Chhath Puja ghats across the city see enormous crowds. The scale of Delhi's Chhath Puja is now comparable to the biggest festivals observed in any city in India.
In Mumbai, the Chhath Puja at Juhu Beach and Girgaon Chowpatty draws lakhs of participants. Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Surat, and Bangalore each have large Chhath Puja observances organised by resident Bihari communities. The festival has also spread to Mauritius, the United Kingdom, the United States, and wherever significant Indian diaspora communities from Bihar and eastern UP have settled.
In Nepal, particularly in the Terai region bordering Bihar, Chhath Puja is observed with the same intensity and tradition as in India. The Bagmati river ghats in Kathmandu and the rivers of the Madhesh province see large Chhath Puja gatherings, and the festival is a national cultural event in Nepal.
Chhath Puja and the Environment
In recent years, Chhath Puja has become a significant occasion for environmental awareness around river and water body cleanliness. Since the festival requires standing in water and making offerings directly in rivers, the state of those rivers has become a matter of direct concern for devotees and their communities. In many cities, municipal governments clean and prepare the ghats specifically for Chhath Puja, and devotee groups have organised river clean-up drives before and after the festival.
The use of natural, biodegradable offerings fresh fruits, sugarcane, Thekua made from wheat and jaggery means the festival itself produces minimal environmental burden. The bamboo Soop is reusable. The challenges come primarily from plastic packaging, synthetic decorations, and unmanaged crowds at ghats. Several states have begun active ghat management programmes around Chhath Puja, combining the festival's own deep respect for water with formal environmental protection measures.
Chhath Puja Today
Chhath Puja has grown from a regional festival of Bihar and eastern UP into one of the most widely recognised Hindu festivals in India. The migration of Bihari and eastern UP communities to cities across the country over the past half-century has carried the festival far beyond its geographic origin. In Delhi, Mumbai, and other large cities, Chhath Puja is now observed on a scale that rivals Diwali in terms of public participation and emotional intensity for the communities involved. The festival has also entered popular culture through films, music, and social media, making the images of devotees standing in rivers at sunset and sunrise recognisable across India even among people who have never observed it. The core of Chhath thirty-six hours without food or water, standing in open water, facing the sun directly remains entirely unchanged, and that continuity is what gives the festival its enduring power.
