Chhath Parva Festival The four-day festival of Bihar, Jharkhand and eastern Uttar Pradesh for Surya and Chhathi Maiya.
The name
The same day, written in each of the six scripts this app keeps
- English
- Chhath Parva
- नेपाली
- छठ पर्व
Only the names actually in use are listed. A blank script is not an omission: the day may simply not be kept there, or be kept under a different festival's name.
UTC+5:30
The date of a festival depends on the place: 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
Looking for the calendar this day belongs to
This day does not fall again in the next three years at this place. A few days are tied to the solar month rather than to the civil year, so a year can hold two of them or none.
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.
The hour
The rule in words
Kartika Shukla Shashti running at sunset for the evening arghya; the morning arghya follows at the next sunrise.
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.
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.
Every date here is computed from the Sun and Moon for the place entered, by the rule printed beside it. 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.