Chhath Puja 2026

Dates around the world · 2026

Date source: drikpanchang.com (New Delhi, Edison, New Jersey, San Jose, California, London, Toronto, Sydney). Dates are taken from the cited published panchang for each region and year; regions we could not verify are left out.

How to observe

Tick the steps as you go. The ticks are saved on this device only.

1. 1Day 1, Nahay Khay (Friday, November 13): bathe, clean the home and kitchen, and eat one pure meal, usually rice, chana dal and lauki cooked without onion or garlic.
2. 2Day 2, Kharna (Saturday, November 14): fast through the day. After sunset, cook gur kheer (rasiya) and roti, offer them to Chhathi Maiya, and take the prasad. The 36-hour nirjala fast begins after this.
3. 3Day 3, morning: make thekua and fill the soop or daura with fruit, sugarcane, coconut and the prasad.
4. 4Day 3, evening (Sunday, November 15): reach the water before your local sunset. Stand in the water, or at the edge, and offer arghya to the setting sun from the soop, with milk and water poured from a lota. Many families sing Chhath geet; some vratis recite the Gayatri mantra or simply 'Om Suryaya Namah'.
5. 5Night: many families light diyas and keep the soop overnight at home. In some homes a kosi (sugarcane canopy with diyas) is set up; this varies by family.
6. 6Day 4, dawn (Monday, November 16): return to the water before sunrise and offer arghya to the rising sun. Pray, take the elders' blessings, and break the fast with prasad and water (parana).
7. 7At home abroad: if you can't reach a lake or beach, a clean bathtub or a large tub on the balcony works. Face the sun through a window if that is the only view you have. What matters is the fast and the arghya at your local sunset and sunrise.
8. 8Cold-weather note: in November much of the US, UK and Canada is near freezing at dawn. Many vratis stand in the water only for the arghya itself, or at the water's edge. Keep a towel, warm clothes and a blanket ready, and don't push yourself if you are unwell.
9. 9Apartment note: keep diyas on plates away from curtains and smoke detectors, and never leave them burning alone. If your community ghat is in a public park, the organisers usually handle permits; check before you light diyas there.

Customs differ by family and region. Follow your family tradition and temple where they differ from these steps.

What you will need

• Bamboo soop (winnowing basket) or daura. Indian grocers in areas with many Bihari and Purvanchali families sometimes stock them before Chhath, and community groups often bring them in bulk. If you can't find one, a steel or brass plate or a wicker basket works.
• Thekua: wheat flour, jaggery, ghee and fennel. Jaggery (gur) is at Indian grocery stores (Patel Brothers in the US, and the Indian shops in Southall, Wembley, Leicester, Brampton or Harris Park). Rice laddoo if your family makes it.
• Sugarcane: Indian, Caribbean and Latin American grocers often sell sugarcane sticks. If you can't find any, the arghya is complete without it.
• Fruit: banana, coconut, apple, orange, and the big citrus (dabh nimbu) if you can find one; a pomelo from an Asian grocer is the usual stand-in. Also seasonal fruit, and ginger and turmeric plants or roots if your family offers them.
• Gur kheer for Kharna: rice, milk and jaggery.
• Diyas with ghee, and sindoor. Electric diyas if you are at home in a flat with smoke alarms.
• A lota for the arghya, with milk and water.
• For abroad: a towel, warm clothes and a blanket for the cold, a clean tub if you are doing the arghya at home, and a torch for the dark walk to the water at dawn.

Texts to recite

• Gayatri MantraThe Gayatri Mantra is a Vedic prayer from the Rig Veda (3.62.10), and its seer is Rishi Vishvamitra. It asks Savitr, the divine sun and source of all life, to light up our minds. It is traditionally chanted at sunrise, noon and sunset, often 108 times.

Questions

Other years