Latitude, longitude and time zone 13.08, 80.27
Asia/Kolkata · UTC+5:30
The date of a festival depends on the place.
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A tithi that ends at dusk in Chennai can still be running at dusk a thousand kilometres west, which moves the day. Sunrise and sunset here are computed for the place above.
When it falls next
Nepal calendar, computed for Chennai
- Sunday, 15 November 2026
- Thursday, 4 November 2027
- Monday, 23 October 2028
Where Chhath Parva falls on the solar year, and how far the date moves between occurrences.
- 2026: 15 Nov
- 2027: 4 Nov, 11 days earlier
- 2028: 23 Oct, 11 days earlier
The days of Chhath
Part of the same festival, in order, in the Nepal calendar
The dates, year by year
Nepal calendar, computed for Chennai
What the day is
The four-day festival of Bihar, Jharkhand and eastern Uttar Pradesh for Surya and Chhathi Maiya. Nahay Khay on the Chaturthi, Kharna and the evening kheer on the Panchami, the sandhya arghya to the setting Sun standing in the river on the Shashti, and the usha arghya to the rising Sun on the Saptami morning, when the fast is finally broken.
- Deity
- Surya, Chhathi Maiya, Usha
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
Significance
Chhath is the one great festival in which the setting sun is worshipped before the rising one, and the elders read it plainly: the family thanks the sun for the day it has given before it asks for the next. Chhathi Maiya, held to be the sister of Surya and in older tellings Shashthi, the guardian of small children, is prayed to for the health of the children and the long life of the family; the Bihar telling has Sita keeping this vow on her return to Ayodhya, and Draupadi keeping it in the forest. No priest is needed and no mantra must be read: the vrati herself stands in the water and offers the soop, and the whole lane cleans and lights the path to the ghat together, rich and poor carrying their baskets side by side. Once a woman takes up the vrat she keeps it every year of her life and passes it on to a daughter-in-law, and it is the promise to come home for it, from wherever work has taken a son, that fills the trains to Bihar in Kartik. Nepal keeps it as Chhath Parva, above all in Mithila and the Madhesh of the Terai, where Janakpur, the city of Sita, holds it as her own, and it is a public holiday across the country.
How it is kept
The puja as a household does it, in order. Tick each step as it is done.
Chhath Parva: how it is kept
Keep ready
- soop and daura, the winnowing baskets of bamboo
- thekua and kasar
- sugar cane with its leaves
- coconut
- bananas, the big citron, sweet potato, radish and singhara
- turmeric and ginger plants
- a brass or copper lota for the arghya
- milk
- clay lamps and ghee
- arwa rice, jaggery and milk for the Kharna
- a clean clay stove and mango wood
- orange sindoor
- new clothes for the vrati
The steps
0 of 7 done
What is cooked
Thekua, wheat flour and jaggery pressed in a wooden mould and fried in ghee, is the prasad of Chhath above all, with kasar, laddoos of rice flour and jaggery. The Kharna kheer, rasiya, is made with jaggery and never with sugar, and the Nahay Khay meal is arwa rice with lauki and chana dal. Everything is cooked in a freshly cleaned kitchen on a mango-wood fire, by the vrati or by those who keep her rules.
The hour
Clock times for Sunday, 15 November 2026 at Chennai
Kartika Shukla Shashti running at sunset for the evening arghya; the morning arghya follows at the next sunrise.
The main rite. The evening arghya is offered as the sun sets on Kartik Shukla Shashti, and the morning arghya at the first sight of the sun on the Saptami; the fast runs without water from the Kharna offering to the morning arghya.
| Instant | Time | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Sunrise | 06:08 | the udaya tithi, the tithi running as the sun comes up |
| Sunset | 17:39 | the moment the sun goes down |
| Pradosha kala | 17:39 to 20:03 | the 2 h 24 min after sunset, the evening worship hour |
Sunrise 06:08, sunset 17:39, UTC+5.5. These are the instants the rule is read at, not the temple's own puja times, which every temple prints for itself.
The day itself
| What | When | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Tithi | Shukla Shashti from previous day 23:24 until next day 02:02 | then Shukla Saptami until 2 days later, 04:20 |
| Nakshatra | Uttara Ashadha until 23:29 | then Shravana until 2 days later, 02:17 |
| Rahu kaal | 16:13 to 17:39 (1 h 26 min) | the eighth of the daylight left alone for a beginning |
| Yamaganda | 11:53 to 13:20 (1 h 26 min) | the eighth ruled by Yama, also avoided |
| Gulika | 14:46 to 16:13 (1 h 26 min) | the eighth of Saturn’s son; what is done in it is said to repeat |
| Abhijit | 11:30 to 12:16 (0 h 46 min) | the midday muhurta, good for most things |
| Moonrise | 10:57 | moonset 22:35 |
For Sunday, 15 November 2026 at Chennai. A time marked "previous day" or "next day" is on the clock of that day.
The fast
The hardest public fast kept in India: thirty-six hours without food or water from the Kharna meal to the morning arghya. Thekua, sugar cane, coconut and seasonal fruit fill the soop, the winnowing basket offered.
What is avoided
Onion, garlic, meat and ordinary salt stay out of the house for the four days, and nothing meant for the offering is tasted or touched with unwashed hands. The wheat drying for the thekua is guarded so that no bird pecks at it, and the vrati sleeps on the floor.
The name
The same day, in every language that has a word for it
Where the regions differ
Bihar, Jharkhand, eastern Uttar Pradesh, Nepal's Terai and now every city those families have moved to. A smaller Chaiti Chhath is kept in Chaitra. The south does not keep it. Nepal keeps Chhath at the ghats of the Terai and at Rani Pokhari and Bagmati in Kathmandu, where the Madhesi families of the valley gather; it is a public holiday in Nepal.
In other regions
- North India
- Bihar, Jharkhand and eastern Uttar Pradesh keep it with the ghats of the Ganga at Patna and Varanasi lined with soops and lamps, and the families of the Purvanchal now keep it on the Yamuna in Delhi, on the sea at Juhu and in every city they have moved to.
- Nepal (the dates above)
- Nepal keeps Chhath at the sacred ponds of Janakpur and the rivers of the Terai, and in Kathmandu at Rani Pokhari, Kamal Pokhari and the Bagmati, where the Madhesi and Maithil families of the valley gather; the songs are sung in Maithili and Bhojpuri.
- Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh
- Jharkhand keeps it as hard as Bihar does and gazettes the two days: the ghats on the Swarnarekha at Ranchi, at Jamshedpur and along the Damodar are cleaned, lit and built up for weeks beforehand, and the Chhattisgarh towns with a Purvanchali population keep it at the talab.
The dates above are the Nepal reckoning, because that is the calendar this key belongs to. Switch the tradition on the calendar page to see how another one dates the same day.
Greeting
What is said to family and friends on the day
छठ पूजा की हार्दिक शुभकामनाएंChhath Puja ki hardik shubhkamnayein
Mantras
The prayers said with the day. Each opens with its words and meaning.
Every date here is computed from the Sun and Moon for the place entered, by the rule printed beside it.
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A printed panchangam can differ by a day where an almanac reads a tithi at a different instant, and a family's own custom always comes first. Where the practice genuinely varies, the text says so rather than choosing for you.