When is Chhath Puja?
The answer
Sunday, 15 November 2026
The sixth. Offered to the setting and rising Sun.
Why that day
- The tithi it is
- Kartika Shukla 6
Read the ordinary way: the day whose SUNRISE this tithi is running at.
And after that
Thursday, 4 November 2027
Kartika Shukla 6
Monday, 23 October 2028
Kartika Shukla 6
How this date is worked out
A festival is a position, not a date. The lunar month is named by the sidereal sign the Sun stands in at the new moon that opens it, and the tithi is the Moon's distance from the Sun in twelve-degree steps. Both come from the same ephemeris this site casts birth charts with.
North India reckons a month from full moon to full moon, so the dark fortnight carries the next month's name — the same day is Shravana Krishna Tritiya in Pune and Bhadrapada Krishna Tritiya in Delhi. These dates use the northern reckoning, and the tithi is printed above so there is nothing to take on trust.
Why it is kept
Kartika Shukla Shashthi — a four-day vrat, and the one great festival in India where the setting sun is given arghya first and the rising sun after. The reason is plain: in this tradition what is going down is saluted first. It is for Surya and for his sister Shashthi Devi — Chhathi Maiya — who guards children, which is why she is also worshipped on a baby's sixth day. There is no image in this vrat, no temple and no priest: you stand in water and offer to the sun directly, after thirty-six hours without food or water.
The story behind it
Priyavrata and Malini
King Priyavrata had no child. Sage Kashyapa did a yagna and Queen Malini bore a son — born dead.
Devasena
The king sat in grief at the cremation ground. A goddess appeared and said: I am Devasena, Brahma's mind-born daughter, Shashthi. Worship me.
The vrat
He kept the vrat on Kartika Shukla Shashthi and the child came to life.
The second story
The other is Karna's — the sun's son who stood in water for hours offering arghya to Surya. Chhath's arghya remembers that.
The third
Draupadi kept the same worship of Surya in exile, and the Akshaya Patra came of it.
What to keep ready
- Bamboo soop and daura — not plastic; this rule is strict
- Thekua, of jaggery and wheat flour fried in ghee; Chhath's own prasad
- Whole sugarcane with the leaves on
- Coconut, a full bunch of bananas, water chestnut, suthani, dabh lemon
- Jaggery, new wheat flour, rice laddu (kasar)
- Clay lamps and mustard oil
- Sindoor, worn from the nose to the parting
- A brass or copper lota, milk and Ganga water, for the arghya
- Turmeric and radish with their leaves
How the puja is done
1
Day one — Nahay Khay
Chaturthi. The house cleaned through, a bath in the river, and one meal — pumpkin and rice, chana dal, arwa rice. Rock salt only.
2
Day two — Kharna
Panchami. Nothing all day. In the evening kheer of jaggery, roti and banana — the vrati eats alone and in silence. The thirty-six-hour nirjala fast begins at that moment.
3
Day three — evening arghya
Shashthi. Thekua and the prasad are made all day. In the evening the family carries the daura to the ghat and the vrati stands in the water to offer to the setting sun.
4
Kosi bharna
That night a canopy of sugarcane is raised at home or at the ghat and lamps lit under it — kept by those whose wish has been granted.
5
Day four — Usha arghya
Saptami. At the ghat before sunrise, arghya to the rising sun. That is the end of the vrat.
6
Parana
The fast is broken with raw milk and prasad, and the thekua is shared out at the ghat itself.
What to do
- The soop and daura must be bamboo. A plastic basket does not do for Chhath — it is the strictest condition of this vrat.
- Evening arghya first, dawn arghya after. The order does not reverse.
- Bathe before entering the kitchen to make the prasad, and keep a stove and vessels used for nothing else across the four days.
- Jaggery in the thekua, never sugar.
- Someone from the family carries the daura behind the vrati; it is not set down on the ground.
- Share the prasad at the ghat itself, with anyone who is there.
What not to do
- Do not taste the prasad while making it — even a taste makes it jootha.
- No onion, garlic or meat in the house through the four days.
- The vrati does not sleep on a bed — a sheet on the floor.
- Do not step into the water for arghya wearing soap, oil or perfume.
- No footwear at the ghat; the walk there is made barefoot.
- No sugar, no refined oil and nothing stale in the prasad.
The aarti
Chhathi Maiya ki Aarti
जय छठी मैया, जय छठी मैया।
सूरज देव की बहना, जग की तू दैया॥
कार्तिक शुक्ल षष्ठी, व्रत तेरा भारी।
छत्तीस घंटे निर्जल, रहे व्रती नर-नारी॥
सूप में ठेकुआ सोहे, गन्ना संग केला।
घाट किनारे सजता, भक्ति का मेला॥
डूबते को अर्घ्य पहले, फिर उगते को दीजै।
यह रीति निराली, तेरी माता कीजै॥
संतान की रक्षा करती, तू ही षष्ठी माता।
जो तेरा व्रत धारे, सूना घर भर जाता॥
जय छठी मैया की आरती, जो कोई नर गावे।
मन की मुराद पावे, कुल उजियारा छावे॥
The sky has a calendar. So do you.
The same engine reads your own birth moment — every house, every graha, every period with dates.