Chhath Puja 2026 — Dates, Arghya Timings and the Four Days

Chhath Puja 2026 runs from Friday, November 13 to Monday, November 16. It is the great four-day festival of Surya, the Sun god, and Chhathi Maiya — one of the most demanding and beautiful vratas in the Hindu calendar, observed above all in Bihar, Jharkhand, eastern Uttar Pradesh, and by their communities across India and the world. Devotees keep a 36-hour nirjala fast and stand waist-deep in a river or pond at sunset and again at sunrise to offer arghya to the Sun — a festival of thanksgiving, purity, and extraordinary discipline.

Its heart is the two arghyas: the Sandhya Arghya to the setting sun on the sixth day (November 15), and the Usha Arghya to the rising sun the next morning (November 16). Here are the verified dates, the four days, the arghya timings, and the rituals.

Chhath Puja 2026 — The Four Days

The Sandhya Arghya is offered at sunset on Nov 15 and the Usha Arghya at sunrise on Nov 16 — both times vary by city. Confirm your city's exact sunset and sunrise on the ShubhDivas Panchanga.

The Significance of Chhath Puja

Chhath is the worship of Surya, the visible giver of life, energy, and health, and of Chhathi Maiya (identified with Usha, the dawn, and revered as a protector of children). It is a festival of gratitude and purity — thanking the Sun for sustaining life and praying for the wellbeing, prosperity, and long life of one's family, especially children. Uniquely, it honours both the setting and the rising sun, a rare acknowledgement that we owe reverence not only to the ascendant but to the declining — a quiet teaching in humility.

What sets Chhath apart is its rigour and its purity. There is no idol, no temple, no priest — the devotee stands directly before the Sun in flowing water and offers worship with her own hands. The vrati (the one who keeps the vrat, usually a woman, sometimes a man) undertakes a nirjala fast of around 36 hours — without food or water — sustained only by devotion. The whole observance is kept in scrupulous cleanliness, and the community gathers at riverbanks and ghats in one of the most moving collective sights of the Indian year.

The Four Days in Detail

Day 1 — Nahay Khay (Nov 13). The vrati bathes (ideally in a river), cleans the home, and eats a single sattvik meal — traditionally kaddu (bottle-gourd) with rice and chana dal, cooked purely — beginning the discipline of the fast.

Day 2 — Kharna / Lohanda (Nov 14). A day-long fast is kept and broken only after sunset with kheer (rice pudding in jaggery) and roti, offered first to the Sun. After this meal, the 36-hour nirjala fast begins — no food or water until the Usha Arghya.

Day 3 — Sandhya Arghya (Nov 15). On the main day (Kartik Shukla Shashti), the family prepares thekua (the signature wheat-and-jaggery prasad), fruit, and sugarcane, arranged in a bamboo soop and daura. At sunset, the vrati stands in the river or pond and offers arghya to the setting sun, with the family around her.

Day 4 — Usha Arghya / Parana (Nov 16). Before dawn the family returns to the water, and at sunrise the vrati offers arghya to the rising sun. With this, the 36-hour fast is broken (parana) and prasad is shared — the festival's joyful close.

Rituals, Prasad and Observance

• Thekua — the deep-fried wheat-flour-and-jaggery sweet is the heart of Chhath prasad, made with great purity.
• The soop and daura — bamboo baskets and winnows hold the fruit (especially sugarcane, coconut, banana, and thekua) offered to the Sun.
• Purity — the entire household maintains strict cleanliness; the prasad is cooked on a dedicated hearth, and no one tastes it before it is offered.
• The arghya — offered standing in water, pouring milk and water toward the Sun from a vessel, with folded hands and the family's prayers.

Because Chhath falls after Diwali and within Kartik, it belongs to the most sacred stretch of the year; note that it lies inside Chaturmas (which ends on Dev Uthani Ekadashi, Nov 20), so the wedding season has not yet reopened — see our November 2026 auspicious dates.