Chhath Puja 2026–2027 — Date, Sunset Time and Usha Arghya Time

Chhath Puja 2026 date: 15 November 2026, Sunday.

Chhath Puja sunset time in Delhi: 5:28 PM; usha arghya time next morning: 6:44 AM. Mumbai - Chhath Puja sunset time 6:01 PM, usha arghya time 6:46 AM. Chhath Puja sunset time in Kolkata: 4:54 PM; usha arghya time next morning: 5:50 AM. Chennai - Chhath Puja sunset time 5:40 PM, usha arghya time 6:08 AM. Chhath Puja sunset time in Bengaluru: 5:51 PM; usha arghya time next morning: 6:19 AM. Hyderabad - Chhath Puja sunset time 5:41 PM, usha arghya time 6:22 AM. Chhath Puja sunset time in Ahmedabad: 5:56 PM; usha arghya time next morning: 6:54 AM. Pune - Chhath Puja sunset time 5:58 PM, usha arghya time 6:42 AM. Chhath Puja sunset time in Jaipur: 5:37 PM; usha arghya time next morning: 6:47 AM. Lucknow - Chhath Puja sunset time 5:17 PM, usha arghya time 6:26 AM. Chhath Puja sunset time in Kanpur: 5:20 PM; usha arghya time next morning: 6:28 AM. Patna - Chhath Puja sunset time 5:02 PM, usha arghya time 6:08 AM.

The Chhath Puja 2026 date most people mean is the day of the Sandhya Arghya - the evening offering to the setting Sun on Kartik shukla shashthi, six days after Diwali. But Chhath is a four-day observance, and the live card and the four-day table above give every date.

It begins with Nahay Khay on chaturthi, continues with Kharna on panchami, reaches its height with the Sandhya Arghya at sunset on shashthi, and ends with the Usha Arghya at sunrise on saptami. Between the Kharna meal and the final morning offering, those keeping the vrat go without food or water for about thirty-six hours.

The Chhath Puja 2026 date is fixed by the shashthi tithi prevailing at sunset, since the evening offering is the defining rite. The exact start and end of the tithi are in the live card.

The Nahay Khay date opens the festival. Those keeping the vrat bathe in a river or pond, clean the house thoroughly, and eat a single sattvik meal - traditionally lauki with chana dal and rice, cooked in ghee without onion or garlic. From this day the kitchen is kept strictly pure.

The Chhath Puja Kharna date is the next day. The vrati fasts through the day without water and breaks the fast only after sunset with kheer made from jaggery and rice, roti and banana, offered first to Chhathi Maiya. The prasad is shared with family and neighbours, and from that moment the thirty-six-hour fast begins.

Both the Nahay Khay date and the Chhath Puja Kharna date appear in the four-day table above, computed backwards from the shashthi. When families plan travel home to Bihar or eastern Uttar Pradesh, they usually aim to arrive before Nahay Khay.

The Chhath Puja sunset time is the moment of the Sandhya Arghya, and it is the single most important time of the festival. Families walk to the ghat in the afternoon carrying soops and dauras loaded with thekua, fruit and lamps, and stand waist-deep in water facing west as the Sun sets.

The arghya - milk and water poured from a copper vessel or the soop itself - is offered at the Chhath Puja sunset time, and the moment is shared by every family on the ghat at once. That is why an accurate time matters: it is the cue for thousands of people.

The city table gives the Chhath Puja sunset time for twenty cities, each computed for its own coordinates. Patna and Kolkata see the Sun set well before Delhi, and Delhi before Ahmedabad; families in Mumbai, Delhi or abroad should use their own local sunset rather than Patna's.

Before dawn on the fourth day, families return to the ghat in the dark and wait in the water facing east. The usha arghya time is sunrise, and the offering to the rising Sun at that moment completes the vrat.

After the usha arghya time, the vrati breaks the thirty-six-hour fast - usually with ginger, water and a little prasad - and the thekua and fruit are distributed to everyone present. The mood at the morning ghat is noticeably lighter than the evening, and many families say the usha arghya is the most beautiful moment of the year.

The usha arghya time is given in the live card for your city and in the city table for twenty others. Arriving twenty to thirty minutes early gives time to settle in the water before the Sun appears.

The Chhath Puja vidhi is demanding but not complicated.

Day 1 - Nahay Khay. Holy bath, house cleaning, and one sattvik meal of lauki, chana dal and rice.

Day 2 - Kharna. Fast all day without water; after sunset, offer and eat kheer of jaggery and rice with roti. The thirty-six-hour fast begins.

Day 3 - Sandhya Arghya. Prepare thekua and the soop. At the ghat, stand in water facing west and offer arghya at sunset. Many families return home and keep lamps burning through the night - the kosi.

Day 4 - Usha Arghya. Return to the ghat before dawn, offer arghya at sunrise, then break the fast and distribute prasad.

Purity runs through the whole Chhath Puja vidhi: new or freshly washed utensils, no onion or garlic, food cooked on a separate hearth, and the vrati sleeping on the floor. Those who cannot keep the full fast for health reasons may keep a lighter form, and the tradition accepts it.

Chhath is one of the few Hindu festivals centred on the Sun itself rather than an image, and one of the oldest - references to Surya worship at sunrise and sunset go back to the Rigveda. Chhathi Maiya, the Sun's sister in the folk tradition, is the protector of children, which is why so many families keep the vrat after the birth of a child or in hope of one.

It is also unusual in having no priest at its centre. The vrati performs every rite personally, and caste and status matter less on the ghat than almost anywhere else in the calendar. Offering to the setting Sun before the rising one is read as gratitude for what has passed before asking for what is to come.

1. The tithi. Kartik shukla shashthi is found to the minute from the Moon's elongation, using the Swiss Ephemeris.

2. The day. The day on which shashthi prevails at your sunset becomes the Sandhya Arghya day; the other three days follow from it.

3. The times. Sunset on shashthi and sunrise the next morning are computed for your city's latitude and longitude.

Trains to Bihar are booked out weeks before the Chhath Puja 2026 date. Municipal bodies clean the ghats in the days before the Chhath Puja 2026 date. Neighbours visit for prasad on the Chhath Puja Kharna date.

The Chhath Puja Kharna date is when the long fast begins. Kheer made with jaggery defines the Chhath Puja Kharna date. Families gather at home on the Chhath Puja Kharna date.

The Chhath Puja Kharna date falls the day before the evening arghya. The house is scrubbed clean on the Nahay Khay date. Lauki is sold out in markets on the Nahay Khay date.

The Nahay Khay date begins the strict purity of the kitchen. A river bath marks the Nahay Khay date. The Nahay Khay date is two days before the evening arghya.

Families plan leave from the Nahay Khay date onwards. The Chhath Puja vidhi is passed from mother-in-law to daughter-in-law. No priest is needed for the Chhath Puja vidhi.

Every step of the Chhath Puja vidhi stresses purity. The Chhath Puja vidhi can be kept at a rooftop tank. Men also keep the full Chhath Puja vidhi in many families.

The Chhath Puja vidhi has barely changed in centuries.