An evening at the Chhath ghat
Episode 3 of 4 in Kartik kathas: stories for the month of lamps.
Narrated with an AI voice.
- Reading time
- 1 min
- Listening time
- 2 min
- By
- DharmikStudio Originals
- Narration
- AI voice
Read along
Namaste. This is Kartik kathas. Tonight there is no single story. There is a riverbank, and a whole family on it.
Chhath is a folk festival. It belongs to Bihar, Jharkhand, eastern Uttar Pradesh and the Terai of Nepal, and to every city where families from there now live. Its steps are not written in one book. Mothers teach them to daughters, and the songs carry the rest. The worship of the Sun is very old, and the Rigveda has hymns to Surya. At Chhath, Surya is worshipped together with Chhathi Maiya.
This year Chhath runs from Friday 13 to Monday 16 November. The evening arghya is on Sunday 15 November.
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Picture the afternoon of that Sunday. The vrati, the one keeping the vrat, has not eaten or drunk since the evening before. A son or a brother lifts the daura, the bamboo basket, onto his head. Inside are the soops, full of thekua, bananas, sugarcane, coconut, water chestnut. The whole family walks to the ghat, and the women begin to sing. One of the oldest songs begins: kaanch hi baans ke bahangiya, bahangi lachkat jaye. The bamboo pole is green and fresh, and it bends under the load.
At the water the vrati steps in, faces the setting Sun, and holds up the soop. One by one, the family pour water or milk from a lota over it, toward the Sun. Nobody hurries.
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Before dawn the next day they come back, and do the same for the rising Sun. Then the vrati shares the prasad, and the fast is over.
If you are keeping Chhath, please look after yourself. Elders, anyone unwell, pregnant, diabetic or on medicine should speak to a doctor first. At the water, stay where you can stand, and keep children close. Namaste.