Chaṭha Pūjā 2179: Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh

Chhaṭh Pūjā is one of the most ancient and rigorous Vedic festivals: a four-day worship of Sūrya (the Sun god) and Chhaṭhī Maiyā (the sixth-day deity, a form of the divine mother) observed primarily in Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, and the Terai of Nepal. Unlike most Hindu festivals, Chhaṭh involves no idols: the Sun itself is the deity, worshipped directly at riverbanks at sunset and sunrise.

The four-day festival follows a strict sequence. On the first day (Nahāy Khāy) devotees take a ritual bath in a river, bring the holy water home, and eat a single pure meal of rice, caṇā dāl, and calabash (bottle gourd). On the second evening (Kharnā) a day-long fast ends at sunset with khīr made of jaggery and new rice, followed by another fast that begins immediately and continues for 36 hours without water.

The climax is the Sāyaṃ Arghya (the sunset offering on Ṣaṣṭhī evening) when thousands of devotees, dressed in yellow and orange, stand waist-deep in rivers holding bamboo baskets (sup) of offerings: fruits, sugarcane, ṭhekuā (a baked sweet), and dīpas. Priests chant Vedic hymns to the setting Sun. The cycle completes the next dawn with Uṣā Arghya (the sunrise offering) when the fast is finally broken.