A long year ago, there
was a king named, Priyavrat and his wife Malini. They were living very happily
but there was a big unhappiness in their life as they have no child. They
decided to make a big Yagya by the help of Maharishi Kashyap in order to be
blessed with a child. His wife became pregnant because of the effect of Yagya.
But she had given birth to a dead child after nine months. King was very sad
and decided to suicide. Suddenly, there came a Goddess in front of him while
suicide. Goddess said that, I am a Goddess Khashti, if someone would offer puja
to me with pure mind and soul, he would definitely get a child. The king,
Priyavrat did the same and blessed with a very beautiful and cute child. Since
then, people started celebrating the chhath puja.
Rituals and Traditions of Chhath Puja
It
is believed that worshipers of the Chhath take holy bath and follows a period
of abstinence and become separate for 4 days from the main family. Throughout
the period he is believed as the pure spirit and sleep on the floor having
single blanket. There is a normal belief that once a family begins Chhatt Puja,
he has to perform it yearly as well as pass it to his next generations and it
can only be skipped when there is a death of any person in the family that
year.
Devotees
offer prasad to Sun at the Chhath such as sweets, Kheer, Thekua and fruits
included in a small bamboo tokari. The prasad should be cooked without salt,
onions or garlic with maintained purity. It is a four days festival which
includes:
· On
the first day, devotees take bathe early in the morning in the holy water of
Gange and bring some water to their home to prepare the offerings. The home and
its surroundings should be cleaned at this day. They take only one meal a day
known as kaddu-bhat cooked only by using the bronze or soil utensils and mango
woods over the soil stove.
· On
the second day (the day before Chhath), Panchami, devotees keeps fast for whole
day and break their fast in the evening after sunset after the worship of Sun.
They offer Rasiao-kheer, puris, fruits in the puja. After taking meal in the
evening, they go on a fast without water for the next 36 hours.
· On
the third day (day of Chhath) they offer the Sanjhiya Arghya at the ghat of
riverbank. After Arghya, they wear the single saree of turmeric color. Other
family members are waiting for getting the blessings from worshiper. At the
night of Chhath a vibrant event of Kosi is celebrated by lighting the lamps of
clay diyas under the covering of five sugarcane sticks. The five sugarcane
sticks indicate the Panchatattva (earth, water, fire, air and space) that human
body made of Panchatattva.
· On
the early morning of the fourth day (Paarun), devotees along with their family
and friends offer Bihaniya Aragh at the ghat of riverbank of Gange. Devotees
end their festival through breaking the fast by having the Chhath prashad. Read more
Nice Mamta keep it up. People like you motivate for our culture.
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