Chhath on the ghats
Bihar's own festival, and the largest thing that happens here
What it is
Four days ending with offerings made standing in the river: first to the setting sun, then, the next morning, to the rising one. There is no priest and no temple in it. The person keeping the fast does everything themselves, and the family stands in the water with them.
Why it matters
Nothing else in Bihar looks like this. It is the one festival that belongs to the state rather than to a temple, and on the evening of Sandhya Arghya every river bank and pond in Bihar is full at the same hour.
How it works
- Day 1, Nahay-Khay: the house is cleaned, the faster bathes in the river, one pure meal.
- Day 2, Kharna: a day-long fast broken after sunset with kheer and roti, then a fast begins with no water at all.
- Day 3, Sandhya Arghya: the whole family goes to the water at dusk. Offerings to the setting sun.
- Day 4, Usha Arghya: back before dawn. Offerings to the rising sun, and only then is the fast broken.
- Who it is for
- Anybody who can stand in cold water at dawn and keep out of the way.
- Not for
- Anybody who needs to travel in or out of Bihar that week.
- Best season
- Oct - Nov
- Difficulty
- Easy to watch. Very hard to keep.
- Cost
- Free to attend. Rooms in Patna triple and sell out; trains are impossible.
- When
- Kartik Chhath, six days after Diwali — October or November
- Booking
- Two months, for a room and for any travel at all.
- Book ahead
- Two months
- Languages
- Bhojpuri, Maithili, Magahi, Hindi
Rules
- The faster takes no food and no water for roughly thirty-six hours
- Nothing at the ghat is touched by leather
- Do not walk through an offering laid out on the bank. Go round
- Ask before photographing a family at the water
What to bring
- Something warm. Dawn on a Bihar riverbank in November is cold
- Shoes you can take off and carry
Where
- Simaria Ghat: For Ganga Snaana, and above all for the month-long Kalpavas, when devotees from across Mithila camp on...
- Kastaharni Ghat: The name means "the bathing place which expels all pains"; pilgrims bathe here believing it relieves...
- Kaunhara Ghat: Pilgrims bathe and pray at the confluence, especially on full-moon days
- Deo Sun Temple: It is the largest Chhath site in the region - lakhs of devotees come to bathe in Surya Kund and offer...
- Umga Sun Temple: It is the second most important Chhath site in Aurangabad after Deo
- Sonepur Mela: Pilgrims come for the holy dip at the confluence on Kartik Purnima and then for darshan at the Harihar...
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