A Mega Festival, Chhat Puja
Earlier, this sacred festival was confined to states like Bihar and Uttar pradesh only but now it is extended to other Indian states.
The people of Some parts of Uttar Pradesh, Madhy pradesh ,West Bengal, Odisha and even Maharashtra also celebrate this sacred festival.Fiji, Mauritius, United States are a few of the some countries where 'Chhat ' is celebrated. It would not be incorrect to say that almost everywhere were specially Biharis reside there 'Chhat' is celebrated with great devotion and gusto.
The people of these states who stay out the home state all the year during' Chhat ' must come to their home land to participate in the festival.
Don't think all who live other states or abroad come to their native places to celebrate .Those who fail to come, celebrate there with the same faith ,dedication , and enthusiasm.
This vedic festival symbolises cleanliness and the proper hygiene that are maintained during the entire stages of this festival.
A small lapse in the process is believed to be a sin so every care is taken starting from arrangements to celebrations of 'Chhat' .It is a sacred festival .
Basically, this festival completes in four days , in other words it can be said that this festival is celebrated for four days.
The first day begins with 'Nahay-Khaye' a name assigned to a particular ritual that comes the first day of the festival.
The special thing about this day is that those who keep fasting on this day eat rice , Pulses , vegetable with no garlic and onion. As in the Hindu system ,it is a common belief that consuming garlic and onion are unsacred .
The second day is known by name 'kharna' when the fasting people eat pudding made from rice ,milk and molasses along with the bread (wheat) also called' roti 'in Hindi language is also prepared as prasadam .On this day , people invite their near and dear ones to celebrate .During evening time, the prasadam is distributed and everyone eats the prasadam.
The third day is the beginning of prayer to Lord Sun.Those who keep fasting for 'chhat' during evening time before sunset offer prayer to Lord Sun, at the bank of any water body ,it might be any river, pond or .If there is no water body close to home then people also dig a small piece of earth and fill it with water to offer prayer to Lord Sun.
The fourth day is also the ending of the 'chath' festival . Early in the morning before the sunrise , people reach at the bank of water body and with the Sunrise they start offering prayer to Lord Sun and in this way the fourth and the last day of the festival ends.
The unique thing about this festival is those who keep fasting has to remain on fasting without water and food from the evening of the second day to the fourth day i.e up to the early morning.So, in this festival fasting hours is around 36 hours at a stretch .
The second thing is that this festival reflects a traditional system ,no use of modern system like the prasadam is prepared on earthen oven , wood and dried cow dung cake are used as fuel in the earthen oven ,no induction oven or gas stove is used to prepare the prasadam.Even, the ingredients that are used to prepare the prasadam are cleaned in a proper way so that there should be no foreign particles .
Milk used for making Prasadam should be fresh and directly taken out .Only cow and buffaloes milk is used to prepare the prasadam .No other animal milk is used to prepare the prasadam.
Entire area is cleaned thoroughly so that one who keeps fasting and go along water body side to offer prayers should not come in contact with dirt particles.
