Formal Commencement of Chaiti Chhath Festival in Mithilanchal from Today
8 Chait, Jaleshwar – The Chaiti Chhath festival has officially begun today across the entire Mithilanchal region of Nepal and India, including Mahottari. Celebrated over four days with various rituals, this festival marks a significant religious occasion observed throughout Terai districts such as Mahottari, Dhanusha, Siraha, Saptari, Sunsari, Morang, Sarlahi, Rautahat, Bara, Parsa, and the wider Mithilanchal area.
In Mahottari, the festival is enthusiastically celebrated at ponds, lakes, and prominent local rivers—including Bighi, Rato Marha, Jangha, Ankusi—as well as canal banks in both remote rural and urban areas like Jaleshwar, Matihani, Suga, Gaushala, Pipra, Samsi, and Bardibas.
According to Kameshwar Pathak, priest of Baba Jaleshwarnath Mahadev in Jaleshwar Municipality–1, the central essence of this festival is to foster people’s interest in truth and non-violence and to inspire empathy towards all living beings. He explains, “Chaiti Chhath is a unique festival dedicated to sun worship, performed both at sunset and sunrise. It is the only celebration in the world that venerates the setting and rising sun.” The festival is observed with solemn devotion, praying for family happiness, peace, prosperity, physical well-being, liberation from illness, and fulfillment of various wishes. As a result, devotees flock to ponds, rivers, lakes, and water bodies during this time.
The first day of the four-day Chaiti Chhath festival (today, Sunday) involves devotees performing a cleansing ritual by bathing and eating, which symbolizes purification of the body. Tomorrow (Monday), the second day called ‘Kharna’ will be observed, where devotees fast throughout the day and perform a sacred communal worship honoring the ancestral deities while inviting the presiding deity of Chhath. They consume ‘Arwa Arabain’—a traditional meal without salt—in the evening.
On Shashthi (Tuesday), devotees grind wheat and rice using traditional tools such as a mortar and pestle (okhal, jhato, or dhiki) to prepare various sweets like Thakuwa, Bhuswa, Khajuriya, and Perukia, along with offerings of fruits, radish, carrot, turmeric stalks, ground ginger, sugarcane, coconut, orange, banana, Nango, Koniya, Sarwa, Dhakan, clay elephants, and larger clay pots. Family members then proceed in procession, singing devotional and folk songs, to the festival ghats located near the designated water bodies.
In the evening of Shashthi, devotees enter the water and worship the setting sun. They apply sandalwood paste and vermillion (sindoor) on their foreheads and palms, offer sacred flowers, and present offerings to the sun in a ritual sequence, establishing all the ritual materials for the arghya (offering). On Wednesday morning, devotees return to the Chhath ghat to repeat the worship in the water, offering tribute to the rising sun, thus concluding the Chaiti Chhath festival.
According to the Mahabharata, during their exile in incognito, the Pandavas, including Draupadi, worshipped Surya (the Sun God) to ensure success. At that time, the Pandavas were residing in the Kirat kingdom of Mithila. Folklore holds that the tradition of celebrating Chhath began from that period. The Surya Purana mentions that the wife of sage Anusuya was the first to undertake the Chhath fast, which resulted in her attaining unwavering fortune and deep love, marking the origin of this practice.
While the festival holds deep religious significance for Hindus, it also promotes social harmony and is observed by Muslims as well. It is believed that the offerings presented to the deity should total seventy items; however, even those who cannot afford the full number are considered to have pleased the deity by offering simply unhusked paddy rice (Gamhari dhan ko chawal).