Chhath puja concludes in Bihar after four day long celebration

Devotees offer prayers to the rising Sun on the last day of Chhath Puja, in Patna on Friday (November 8, 2024).
| Photo Credit: ANI

With devotees offering morning prayer to the rising sun, the four day long Chhath festival of Bihar which is also celebrated in eastern Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand concluded on Friday (November 8, 2024). Eight people, including three children, drowned to death in different parts of Bihar in festival-related incidents.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) chief Chirag Paswan et al offered arghya, a prayer to the sun as it rises and sets, with their kinfolf during the four-day festival.

The State government had made elaborate arrangements for the festival which had begun on November 5 with nahai-khai (ritual bath and breakfast) ritual. Devotees across Bihar and other States offered arghya prayers on November 7 and 8.

Chhath puja falls on the sixth day of the Kartigai Shukla Paksha in the Shashti tithi as per the Hindu calendar. Along with the Sun, Chhathi Maiya, mentioned also as the Vedic deity Usha, is also worshipped. This festival reveres the Sun as a deity in the spirit of thanksgiving and gratitude while seeking a good winter (kharif) harvest.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and members of his family took part in Chhath celebrations and offered prayers at the CM’s official residence at Anne Marg while, Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) chief Chirag Paswan offered the same at his Patna residence in Srikrishnapuri locality. Along with CM Nitish Kumar, BJP’s national president J.P. Nadda also undertook a steamer ride in river Ganga to waive at devotees along different ghats in Patna on November 7. Mr. Nadda had spent his early days in Patna.

Along with other districts administrations in the State, the Patna district administration too had made elaborate arrangements at more than hundred ghats where devotees throng to celebrate the festival. Thousands of security personnel and medical camps with watch towers and drone mapping were pressed in service to avert any untoward incident during Chhath festival. To limit crowds at the ghats, the district administration had also made water bodies in different city parks to offer arghya to both setting and rising suns for the devotees and their family members. The roads were cleaned up and decorated with lights. Senior district officials even visited several ghats to review arrangements for the devotees. Several people, though, celebrated the festival on their rooftops to avoid crowd at river banks.

Hundreds of thousands of migrant people from Bihar return home annually to participate in the four-day festival. Bihar bound crammed bogies of Indian rail and people bussed watertight have been the common sight during Chhath festival.

Meanwhile, eight people, including three children, drowned to death in different parts of the State during the festival. The children drowned while their family members were busy making preparations on river ghats to offer prayer. Two girls and a boy, all below 14 years of age, drowned in river Sone in Andhari village under Chauri police station of Bhojpur district. Similarly, two youths identified as Ayush Kumar, 18 and Abhishek Kumar, 22, of Pipra village under Dinara police station of Rohtas district died of drowning during the festival.