Festivals8 min read
Chhath at the Waterline
Chhath draws whole streets to the water at sunrise and sunset. A report from two neighbourhoods — one in Varanasi, one in Ballia — and the women who keep the vow.
Anjali Rai·
October–November
Chhath Puja
A four-day festival of fasting, purity, and worship of the Sun at riverbanks and ponds.
Chhath is observed over four days in the month of Kartik, when women (and in many households, men) offer water and fruit to the setting and rising sun. The festival is notable for its discipline and simplicity — no temples, no priests as intermediaries, no idols. The offerings are made from the water's edge, in person, at first light and at dusk. In Purvanchal, Chhath is not a domestic festival but a neighbourhood one; the whole street walks together to the river or the pond.
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