Chhath 2027 (छठ)

• Havan — the fire offering, kept on its own or as part of a larger vidhi
• Satyanarayan Katha — the katha of Bhagwan Satyanarayan, traditionally read to give thanks

Chhath is four days and the strictest fast kept in the Hindu year. Nahay Khay opens it with a bath and one plain meal; Kharna is a day-long fast broken at dusk with kheer and roti, after which nothing is eaten or drunk for about thirty-six hours.

The third evening is Sandhya Arghya, when the fasting woman stands in the river and offers water to the setting sun. It is the only major rite in the tradition addressed to a sun going down before one coming up, and the reason usually given is that what declines is thanked before what rises is asked.

Usha Arghya follows before dawn on the fourth day and ends the fast. The offering is carried in a soop of bamboo — thekua baked without milk, sugarcane, banana, coconut — and the vratti walks to the water rather than being driven, often with the family lying prostrate along the last stretch.

There is no priest and no temple. Chhathi Maiya is invoked beside Surya, the songs are sung by the women of the household, and the rite is kept on the riverbank, which is why it travelled with Bihari and Purvanchali families to Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata as ghat gatherings rather than as buildings.