Four days for the sun
Chhath Puja 2026
The sun festival of Bihar, Jharkhand, eastern Uttar Pradesh and Nepal, six days after Diwali: a thirty-six-hour fast and offerings to the setting and the rising sun, standing in the water.
- Chhath Puja 2026
- Sunday, 15 November 2026
- Chhath Puja 2027
- Thursday, 4 November 2027
Chhath Puja near you
Chhath Puja in Ireland 2026: all 1 events, dates and where to go →
Chhath Puja events near you
What Chhath Puja is
Chhath honours Surya and Chhathi Maiya over four days: Nahay Khay, a bath and a simple meal; Kharna, a day’s fast broken with kheer at dusk; Sandhya Arghya, the evening offering to the setting sun from the ghat, standing in the river; and Usha Arghya, the same at sunrise, after which the fast of thirty-six hours ends. It is kept without priests, by the women of the family, with thekua, fruit and sugarcane in bamboo baskets.
Abroad the ghat is wherever there is water: the Purvanchali and Bihari associations arrange a lake, a canal bank or a beach with the council’s permission — in London, Dublin, Toronto, Houston and Sydney — and the community gathers in the dark before sunrise. Its main day is the sixth after Diwali, so the dates move with it.
Chhath Puja in Ireland
The Bihar Jharkhand Association of Ireland keeps Chhath Mahaparv in Dublin, at a lakeside or a riverbank arranged with the council, with the evening arghya on the day and the sunrise one the next morning.
Chhath Puja in the UK
London’s Chhath is kept on the Thames, the canals and the park lakes — Southall, Harrow and east London have the largest gatherings — with the Bihari associations arranging the ghat; Leicester and Birmingham keep their own.
If it is your first one abroad
- The evening arghya is at sunset and the morning one before sunrise — in a northern November that is about 4.30pm and 7.45am; dress for cold water.
- Bring fruit, sugarcane and thekua for the basket; the association will say where the ghat is and whether the water is open to stand in.
Chhath Puja is better with people near you
Free, in every country. Everything below is ranked by how far it is from you.
- Groups near youJoin the Indian community groups in your city — chat, plans and people who get it.
- Events near youEvery festival, garba night and meetup, ranked by distance, with RSVP and reminders.
- Buy and sellSarees, kurtas, furniture, kitchen things — from people a few streets away.
- Rent near youRooms and flats from the community, with the person behind the listing one tap away.
Questions people ask
- When is Chhath Puja in 2026?
- The main day, Sandhya Arghya, is Sunday 15 November 2026, with the sunrise arghya on Monday 16 November; Nahay Khay is the 13th and Kharna the 14th. In 2027 the main day is Thursday 4 November.
Other festivals
Organising something?
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