Chhath Puja: The Festival With No Idols

For 36 hours, devotees drink no water and eat no food. Then they wade waist-deep into a river before dawn, to offer prayers to a Sun god with no idol, no temple, and no priest in sight.

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Four Days, No Idols, No Priests

How Chhath Puja moves from the river’s bank to the rising Sun

Day 1

Nahay Khay

Devotees bathe in a river, then cook the first ritual meal.

Day 2

Kharna

A daylong fast breaks at sunset, opening the 36-hour nirjala vrat.

Day 3

Sandhya Arghya

Fasting devotees stand waist-deep in water to greet the setting Sun.

Day 4

Usha Arghya

Before dawn, offerings to the rising Sun end the 36-hour fast.

The throughline: across all four days, Chhath Puja is worshipped without a single idol, temple, or priest — just devotees, a river, and the Sun itself.

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Timeline

• Vedic era: Hymns to Surya, the Sun god, appear in the Rig Veda, the root of India’s Sun-worship tradition.
• Epic era: The Ramayana and Mahabharata both describe figures observing a Chhath-style vow, including Sita, Kunti, Draupadi, and Karna.
• Every year: The main observance falls on Shashthi, the sixth day of the bright fortnight of Karttika (October-November), close to a week after Diwali.
• 13-16 November 2026: This year’s four-day cycle of Nahay Khay, Kharna, Sandhya Arghya, and Usha Arghya.

A Festival With No Idols and No Priests Need to Know

• Chhath Puja is a four-day Hindu solar festival, centred on worship of Surya, the Sun god.
• It is celebrated mainly in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Jharkhand, plus the Madhesi community in Nepal, and by the wider Indian diaspora.
• Unlike most Hindu festivals, worship happens without murtis, temples, or priests.
• Devotees offer arghya, or water libations, directly to the setting and rising Sun.
• The Ramayana describes Sita performing a Chhath-style vow to pray for motherhood, later blessed with twins.
• In the Mahabharata, Kunti and Draupadi observed it after escaping a burning palace, and Karna, a son of Surya, is said to have worshipped this way too.
• In Bihar, Chhath is often considered even more emotionally significant than Diwali, which falls just days earlier.

Four Days of Fasting and Offerings Good to Know

• Nahay Khay (“bathe and eat”) opens the festival. Devotees bathe in a river, then cook a first ritual meal on a clay stove.
• Kharna is a daylong fast broken at sunset with kheer, chapatis, and bananas, shared as prasad with the family.
• Kharna also opens the 36-hour nirjala vrat, a fast without food or water. Devotees who observe it are called vratis.
• Sandhya Arghya is the most demanding day. Fasting devotees stand waist-deep in water to offer libations to the setting Sun.
• Offerings are carried in a soop, a winnowing basket filled with thekua, sugarcane, turmeric roots, and seasonal fruit.
• Usha Arghya, the final day, ends the fast with offerings to the rising Sun, often before 4 a.m.
• Only satvik food is eaten throughout, cooked without onion or garlic, and no restaurant or store-bought food is allowed.

Test Yourself

Please wait…

1. Unlike most Hindu festivals, Chhath Puja worship takes place without which of the following?

A fixed calendar date

Idols, temples, or priests

Any form of fasting

A connection to the Sun

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Who Is Chhathi Maiya? Great to Know

• Alongside Surya, the festival’s other central deity is Chhathi Maiya, “Mother of the Sixth.”
• Devotees regard her as a manifestation of Ushas, the Vedic goddess of dawn.
• In some folk traditions she is also linked to Shashthi, protector of children.
• This is a distinct goddess and a distinct festival from Skandashashthi, which falls on a different lunar fortnight. The two are easy to confuse but are not the same observance.
• At dawn on the final day, elder women bless younger ones with prasad in a ritual called Khoichh, wishing them health and fertility.
• The festival relies almost entirely on biodegradable offerings, fruit, clay lamps, and unprocessed food, making it one of India’s more ecologically rooted observances.

Legacy

• Chhath Puja remains one of the few major Hindu festivals observed without idols, temples, or priestly mediation.
• Its roots in the Rig Veda’s Sun hymns, and its retelling through the Ramayana and Mahabharata, connect it directly to Vedic-era worship.
• Migration from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and the Nepal Terai has carried the festival to cities and countries far from its regional origins.