The story
Janakpur Chhath in Janakpur
Chhath Puja in Janakpur is a four-day festival of ritual purity and fasting dedicated to Surya, the sun god, and Chhathi Maiya, worshipped as a protector of children and family well-being. Devotees, mostly women, keep a rigorous fast that includes a full day without water before making offerings to the setting and rising sun at riverbanks and ponds.
Chhath Puja's core ritual act, standing in a river or pond to offer arghya to the sun both as it sets and as it rises, is built on an idea distinct from most Hindu festivals: that Surya should be worshipped directly rather than through an image or intermediary, and that this worship should mark both endings and beginnings within a single unbroken observance.