Festival
Chhath Puja
Four days of austerity for Surya — offerings at sunset, then at the rising sun.
Significance
Chhath, observed on the sixth day after Diwali, is among the most austere of Hindu observances — a four-day vrat to Surya and Chhathi Maiya for the wellbeing of one's children and family. Devotees fast without water, stand waist-deep in rivers and ponds, and offer arghya first to the setting sun, then to the rising one.
That reversal — honouring the setting sun before the rising — carries Chhath's distinct teaching: gratitude owed in decline no less than in ascent. The festival's heartland is Bihar, eastern UP and the Terai, but its ghats now light up cities worldwide.
How it is celebrated
- Nahay-Khay: a purifying bath and single simple meal begins the vrat.
- Kharna: a day's fast ending with gur kheer at sundown.
- Offer sandhya arghya to the setting sun, standing in water.
- Offer usha arghya to the rising sun and break the 36-hour fast.
Prayers for Surya
English
Shree Suryadev Aarti (1)
Om Jai Surya Bhagwan,
English
Shree Suryadev Aarti (2)
Om Jai Kashyap-Nandan,
English
Shree Suryadev Aarti (3)
Jai Jai Jai Ravidev,
English
Shree Suryadev Aarti (4)
Jay Jay Jagatmaharana Dinakar Sukhakiraana ।
English
Shree Suryadev Chalisa (1)
Shri Raviharat Aa Horat Tame,
English
Shree Suryadev Chalisa (2)
Kanaka Badana Kundala Makara,
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