Chhath Puja 2026: Dates, Four Days of Rituals and Popular Places to Visit

Few sights stay with you like a Chhath ghat at sunset, with families gathered on the bank and the devotees who keep the fast standing in the river as the sun goes down. Chhath Puja 2026 begins on Friday, 13 November and ends on Monday, 16 November, and the evening offering, Sandhya Arghya, falls on Sunday, 15 November.

Patna’s Ganga ghats are where the festival is at its biggest, while Varanasi and Delhi’s Yamuna banks are good alternatives. Here is what happens on each of the four days, why the festival is celebrated, and how to watch it respectfully. If festivals like this are what you travel for, our event and festival tour packages are a good place to start.

Chhath Puja 2026 begins on Friday, 13 November and ends on Monday, 16 November, with the main Sandhya Arghya on Sunday, 15 November. Dates follow the panchang and are accurate as of 25 October 2026.

Chhath is a simple festival with strict rules, and nearly all of it happens outdoors by the water.

1. Prayers to the setting and rising sun: Devotees stand in a river, pond or ghat and offer arghya (water offered to the sun) at dusk and again at dawn.
2. Traditional offerings: Thekua (a crisp sweet of wheat flour, jaggery and ghee) is placed with fruits and sugarcane in a soop (a flat bamboo tray) or a daura (a deep bamboo basket).
3. Cleanliness: The house gets a thorough cleaning before anything else. A separate kitchen is kept for Chhath cooking, and nobody tastes the prasad until it has been offered.
4. Community: Neighbours and volunteers clean the ghat, set up lights and help carry the offerings, which keeps the crowded evening and morning rituals running smoothly.

Chhath Puja is celebrated to thank Surya for health, energy and the harvest, and to seek the blessings of Chhathi Maiya, who is worshipped for the wellbeing of children and families. Devotees believe that offering water to the sun with a clean body and a disciplined fast brings health and prosperity to the household.

Several traditions are tied to the festival. One says Sita observed it after returning to Ayodhya, and another credits Karna, the son of Surya, with standing in water to worship the sun every day. It is also one of the few festivals in which the setting sun is worshipped first, and there is no priest at the ghat. The vrati, the person keeping the fast, makes the offering directly.

Preparation starts a day or two before Nahay Khay. The house and kitchen are cleaned, and a separate satvik cooking area is set aside. The samagri includes wheat flour, jaggery, rice, milk, ghee, fruits, sugarcane, turmeric, ginger, a new bamboo soop, a kalash, incense, diyas and a new cloth.

The vrati bathes in a clean river or at home on Friday, 13 November, and the house and the path to the ghat are cleaned. The only meal of the day is satvik, often bottle gourd cooked with chana dal and rice, seasoned with rock salt and without onion or garlic. The day is quiet, and it sets the tone of discipline for the rest of the festival.

On Saturday, 14 November the vrati fasts through the day. After sunset, gud ki kheer and roti are offered to the deity first, then eaten by the vrati and shared with family and neighbours. The nirjala fast starts after this meal. Thekua is usually prepared in the evening, ready for the offering the next day.

Sandhya Arghya on Sunday, 15 November is the day the ghats fill up. By mid-afternoon families are walking to the water barefoot, the men often carrying the daura on their heads, while the women follow in new clothes with the soop, filled with thekua, fruits, sugarcane, coconut, betel leaves and a lit diya.

As the light turns orange, the vrati wades into the river or pond, the soop is raised toward the sun, and water is poured from the kalash while folk songs to Chhathi Maiya carry across the ghat.

Wading in is done only where it is safe and permitted. Families usually leave home two to three hours before sunset, and visitors should reach the ghat at least an hour early to find a spot.

Before dawn on Monday, 16 November, families return to the ghat with fresh prasad. The arghya to the rising sun completes the core worship. The vrati ends the fast with parana at home, drinking water first and then eating prasad, which is shared with family and neighbours.

WanderOn Insider Tip: Sunrise is at about 6:44 AM in Delhi and about 6:07 AM in Patna, so reaching the ghat 60 to 90 minutes earlier means leaving home in the dark. Carry a torch or phone light, and stay on the lit paths set up by the organisers.

The nirjala fast begins after the Kharna meal at dusk on 14 November and ends after Usha Arghya at sunrise on 16 November, a stretch of about 36 hours with no food and no water. During this time the vrati prepares the prasad, walks to the ghat and stands in cold water at both arghyas. Family members take on the cooking with new utensils in the separate kitchen, so the whole household is actively involved.

Patna is the centre of the festival, and Chhath Puja in Patna is at its biggest on Sandhya Arghya,when the Ganga riverfront fills with devotees at Gandhi Ghat, Digha Ghat and Collectorate Ghat. The city sets up temporary lighting, barricades and medical camps at the larger ghats.

Varanasi offers a quieter setting at Assi Ghat and Dashashwamedh Ghat, with the old city behind the water, and the places to visit in Varanasi fill the rest of the day before the evening arghya.

In other cities, local authorities set up temporary ghats, and the list changes from year to year, so check local announcements a week before the festival. The usual locations and approximate timings for 2026 are below.

• Thekua: The sweet most associated with Chhath, made from wheat flour, jaggery and ghee, shaped by hand and fried until crisp.
• Gud ki kheer: Thick with jaggery, and the first meal the vratis eat after the Kharna fast.
• Fruit in the soop: Seasonal bananas, sweet lime and pomegranate sit alongside sugarcane and coconut.
• How it is prepared: Everything is made at home with new utensils and without onion or garlic.
• The one rule: None of it is tasted before it is offered.

• Keep a respectful distance from the vratis in the water, and never step between them and the sun.
• Treat the soop and prasad as sacred, and do not touch them unless a family invites you to.
• Ask before photographing a family, and keep the flash off during arghya.
• Follow local advisories, since some ghats are marked unsafe after inspections, and do not wade in as a spectator.
• Carry your litter out, because cleanliness is part of the Chhath puja rituals itself.

Chhath is only the start, because November has more festivals lined up after it. On 24 November, eight days after Chhath ends, the ghats of Varanasi light up with diyas for Dev Deepawali in Varanasi.

The same day is Kartik Purnima, which is also when Guru Nanak Jayanti is observed with prayers and langar at gurdwaras. If you want to plan a trip around dates like these, our India tours cover festivals across the country.