Chaiti Chhath 2027

About Chaiti Chhath

Chaiti Chhath is the spring round of Chhath, the four-day vrat to Surya and Chhathi Maiya kept in Bihar, Jharkhand and eastern Uttar Pradesh and by Purvanchali families elsewhere. It runs from Chaitra Shukla Chaturthi to Saptami, during Chaitra Navratri. In 2027 it begins with Nahay Khay on Saturday, 10 April 2027, with the evening arghya on the third day and the dawn arghya on the fourth.

Chhath is kept twice a year. The big one comes in Kartik, a week after Diwali, when the ghats overflow. Chaiti Chhath comes six months earlier, in the bright half of Chaitra, with the same four days, the same 36-hour waterless fast and the same two offerings to the sun. Fewer families keep it, the ghats are calmer, and the weather is the hardest part: by late March or April the plains of Bihar are already hot.

Same vrat, a different season

The ritual does not change between the two Chhaths. The vratin, or parvaitin, bathes and eats one pure meal on the first day, fasts and eats kheer on the second evening, and then goes without food or water until after the dawn offering on the fourth morning. Most vratins are women, but men keep the fast too.

What changes is the calendar around it. Chaiti Chhath falls inside Chaitra Navratri, so many homes are already fasting or eating sattvik food for the Devi, and Ram Navami follows two or three days after the dawn arghya. Some vratins keep both vrats in the same fortnight.

People keep Chaiti Chhath for the reasons they keep Kartik Chhath: a child's health and long life, the family's wellbeing, or a mannat, a vow made when a prayer was answered. Once a family takes up Chhath, it is usually kept every year.

The four days

Chaiti Chhath runs from Chaitra Shukla Chaturthi to Saptami. The arghya times are simply local sunset and sunrise, so take them for your own town, not Patna's.

1. Day 1 · Nahay Khay
   Bath, then one pure meal

   The vratin bathes, in a river if possible, and the house is cleaned. The one meal is kaddu-bhaat: bottle gourd, chana dal and arva rice, cooked without onion or garlic, often in clay or bronze pots over mango wood.

2. Day 2 · Kharna
   A day's fast, broken at dusk

   No food or water all day. After the evening puja the vratin eats rasiyaw, kheer made with jaggery, with roti. The 36-hour nirjala fast starts once that meal is over.

3. Day 3 · Sandhya Arghya
   Offering to the setting sun

   The family carries the daura of thekua, rice-flour laddoos and fruit to a river, pond or tank. The vratin stands in the water and raises the soop to the sun as it goes down. Some families then fill the kosi: five to seven sugarcane stalks tied into a canopy over clay lamps.

4. Day 4 · Usha Arghya and parana
   Offering to the rising sun

   Back at the water before dawn. After the arghya the vratin breaks the fast, often with raw milk or a little water and prasad, and the prasad goes round everyone who came.

How the date is set

Chhath belongs to the sixth lunar day, Shashthi. The evening arghya is given on Chaitra Shukla Shashthi and the morning arghya on Saptami, so the four days start on Chaturthi. Because tithis do not line up with calendar days, panchangs sometimes differ by a day. When Shashthi covers the sunset of one day and the sunrise of the next, check your family's panchang or the local temple rather than a national website.

The same Shashthi is kept in Mathura and Vrindavan as Yamuna Chhath, or Yamuna Jayanti, the birthday of the river goddess. It is a separate observance. In Braj, boats carry a long chunari, sarees stitched together, across the Yamuna from bank to bank. If you search for the Chaitra Chhath date and see "Yamuna Chhath", it is the same tithi, not the same ritual.

Where it is kept

Patna's Ganga ghats hold Chaiti Chhath as they hold the Kartik one, on a smaller scale. The Sun temple at Deo in Aurangabad district, which unusually faces west towards the setting sun, draws vratins to its Surya Kund in both seasons. Away from Bihar, Purvanchali families keep it at park tanks, terrace tubs and riverbanks from Delhi to Mumbai, and wherever Bhojpuri-speaking families settled abroad.

Chaiti Chhath does not draw the crowds, the public ghats or the holiday notices that Kartik Chhath does. For many vratins it is a family affair: a handful of relatives, one ghat, and the songs.

What to write, and what to avoid

"Jai Chhathi Maiya" is the greeting at every ghat and is never wrong. If you know who is fasting, write to them by name. If you are visiting a ghat, stand back from the water's edge, ask before you photograph anyone, and accept prasad when it is held out to you.

For the autumn festival, its history and the ghats of Patna, Delhi and Kathmandu, see Chhath Puja.

How to wish someone on Chaiti Chhath

A Chaiti Chhath wish is a prayer for the person keeping the vrat. Ask that Chhathi Maiya accept the arghya and keep the family well, and name the vratin if you know who it is. "Jai Chhathi Maiya" works in Hindi, Bhojpuri, Maithili and Magahi. Remember the waterless fast falls in hot weather, so a line of care lands better than a festive one. Don't offer food or drink between the Kharna meal and the dawn arghya.

Write a few lines in your own words, pick a design and share it as one link on WhatsApp, Instagram or anywhere else. They open an animated card made just for them, with no app and no sign-up.

Language tip: English, Hindi + Bhojpuri and Maithili.

When is Chaiti Chhath in each year?

Chaiti Chhath is set by the Hindu lunisolar calendar, so it falls on a different date each year. In 2027 it falls 19 days later than in 2026. Chaiti Chhath runs 4 days.

Frequently asked questions