✨ Cultural Gem Tradition

Chhath: A Festival Without a Priest

Unlike most Hindu festivals, Chhath Puja does not need a priest, a temple or an idol. The devotee — the vrati — prays directly to the visible Sun, standing in water at a river, lake or pond.

It is also one of the very few Hindu rituals in which the setting sun is worshipped as well as the rising sun: on the third day arghya is offered to the evening sun, and on the fourth to the dawn.

Everything about Chhath is simple and seasonal: bamboo baskets and winnowing trays, sugarcane, fresh fruit, thekua made from wheat and jaggery, and the folk songs of Bhojpuri and Maithili women passed down for generations. Its emphasis on purity, gratitude and nature has helped it travel with Bihari and Purvanchali families from Patna to Mumbai, Bengaluru, Dubai and New Jersey.

Chhath is also one of the most demanding Hindu observances. After Nahay Khay and Kharna, the vrati keeps a nirjala fast — without even water — for about 36 hours, standing in water at sunset and again before sunrise to offer arghya. Families share the work: carrying the bamboo daura, preparing thekua, decorating the ghat and singing late into the night.

Purity runs through every step. Homes are cleaned, the kitchen is set apart, prasad is cooked in new or dedicated vessels, and nothing is tasted before it has been offered. The songs — sung mostly by women in Bhojpuri, Maithili and Magahi — have been handed down orally for generations and are instantly recognisable to anyone from the region.

As families from Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh have moved across India and abroad, Chhath has moved with them. Lakes in Bengaluru and Mumbai, beaches in Mumbai and Dubai, and ponds and artificial tanks in New Jersey and Mauritius now fill with devotees at sunset in Kartika — a moving sight of a festival that needs nothing but the sun, water and devotion.