Chhath puja is a four-day festival for women of Bihar, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, and parts of Odisha and Nepal

Women celebrate the Chhath festival to worship the Sun God. It is the practice to offer items from the seasonal harvest while the devotees take a dip in the holy water, chant mantras, and worship the Sun God and his wife Usha. The intention in short is to thank God for the nature, water, and wind he provides us. Women from northern states like Bihar, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, and parts of Odisha and Nepal perform the rites. Purity is of utmost importance and devotees take the holy bath and follow by a period of abstinence or self-restraint. Some of them sleep on the floor for four days of the festival. Offerings are more or less the same for each and even the Muslims take part in the festivities. The basic purpose is to celebrate the wellness and prosperity of the family. Chhath Puja 2022: Four-day celebration across India.

The Rig Veda contains references of Chhath Puja. The worshippers chant some of the mantras from the Rig Veda texts as they offer prayers to the Sun. Sages from the Vedic era used to expose themselves to direct sunlight as they performed the puja. When Lord Rama returned to Ayodhya, he and Sita Devi observed a fast in honor of the Sun god and broke it only with the setting sun. Karna, the child of the Sun God and Kunti, used to offer prayers while standing in the water. Draupadi and the Pandavas also performed Chhath puja to get their kingdom back. The menu for the four-day festival is a long one with separate items for each day. It all boils down to an occasion to spread a message of goodness to society.

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