Chhath Puja

Culture of origin: Hindu · Cultural

Holiday sources: Hinduism

Chhath is a festival of East India and southern Nepal to Surya, the sun, and to Chhathi Maiya, held over three nights and four days. The devotees, usually women though men take part too, bathe in holy waters, fast without water, and stand in rivers and ponds to make offerings (arghya) to the setting sun on the third day, the day given here (Sandhya Arghya), and to the rising sun the next morning. It is kept above all in Bihar, Jharkhand and eastern Uttar Pradesh and in Nepal's southern provinces, and by their diaspora.