Chatt Parva

 It is often seen that hinduism is always assumed to be the religion of fools and satanic religion by other religions in the world. Well! in this scientific age even hindus have started to believe the same as others do. They are often found forcing others not to believe in god and goddess but in science. And such people are rapidely increasing in number.

All I have to say is, no religion in this world is religion of fools or satanic, but it is us who is not able to understand and often make the final dicission watching the ignorants of the certain religion following it.

Here is a short discription of a Festival celebrated by hindus.

                        CHATT PARVA

Chhath is an ancient Hindu Vedic festival dedicated to the Sun and Goddess Chhathi Maiya.

The Goddess Chhathi Maiya is known as Usha in the Vedas. She is believed to be the beloved younger wife of Sun God. Usha(The first light of day) and Pratyusha(the last sun-ray of day) are wives of Sun and Aditi is his mother.

Usha in the Rig Veda has more symbolic meaning. Symbolically Usha is the dawn of divine consciousness in the individual aspirant. It is said - Usha and Pratyusha, wives of Sun are the main source of Sun. Both Usha and Pratyusha are worshiped along with Sun in chhath parva. Usha is worshipped on the last day and Pratyusha is worshipped in the evening by offering water or milk to the rising and setting sun respectively. This is the only parva which signifies rising sun as well as setting sun both.

According to hindus, sun is regarded as god and the Chhath Puja is performed in order to thank sun god for sustaining life on earth and to request the granting of certain wishes, as well as for the well-being, success and progress of their family members, friends,elders and so on..

The rituals of the festival are observed over a period of four days. In this auspicious day the devotee wake up early in the morning, take a holy bath in a river nearby and keep fasting and abstaining from drinking water for whole day, they even keep themselves standing in the water for a long time. They offer prasad(food as offering) and argh (water as offering) to the rising sun. It is celebrated in almost every region of  Nepal and India. 

Chhath Puja 2016 Dates

• Friday, 4th of November 2016 is the day of bath and can eat food.

• Saturday, 5th of November 2016 is the day of fasting which ends after sunset (36 hours long fast).

• Sunday, 6th of November 2016 is the day of Sandhya( dusk) Argh.

• Monday, 7th of November 2016 is the day of Suryodaya(dawn) Argh and the Paran( breaking of the fast).

                             History                                                      The Rigveda contains hymns worshiping the Sun god and describes similar rituals followed even today. As it is well known that Rigveda is the oldest veda of all vedas this ritual may even predate the ancient vedas texts.

It is considered that Lord Rama and Mata Sita had kept fast and offer puja to the Lord Sun during their coronation after returning to the Ayodhya after 14 years of exile. From that time, chhath puja became the significant and traditional festival in the Hindu religion and started celebrating every year at the same date in Sita mata's homeland Janakpur.

The ritual is also mentioned in the greatest epic Mahabratha. In mahabratha it is so said that Draupadi and the pandavas performed chatt puja as per advised by a sage Dhaumya. it is believed that the sun god in return helped pandavas to regain their lost kingdom.

Here are some pics of my mom and maiju captured in a chatt parva previous year. The more detailed information and recent pics of chatt parva will be uploaded in my upcoming blogs.

Until then take care, and thank you