Chhath Puja 2026 (Nahay Khay, Kharna, Arghya): Dubai, United Arab Emirates

From the Devi Bhagavata Purana and the Brahma Vaivarta Purana

The name Chhath comes from Shashthi, the sixth day of the moon, and the goddess honoured on it is Shashthi Devi, whom families lovingly call Chhathi Maiya.

The sage Narayana told the sage Narada who this goddess is. She is called Shashthi because she is the sixth part of Prakriti. She is the goddess of infants and children. She gives children, she protects them, and she decides how long they live. She is also known as Devasena, the wife of Skanda, and she is the mind-born daughter of Brahma.

Long ago lived King Priyavrata, the son of Svayambhuva Manu. He was a great yogi and did not wish to marry, but at Brahma's urging he married. For many years he had no son. The sage Kashyapa performed a sacrifice for the birth of a son, and Queen Malini ate the sacred offering from it and conceived.

She carried the child for twelve years. At last she gave birth to a son with skin the colour of gold, but the baby was lifeless. The queen fell senseless with grief. The king carried the little body to the cremation ground, holding it to his chest, and was ready to give up his own life.

Then a shining heavenly car, white as crystal, came down from the sky. In it sat the goddess Devasena, young, smiling and radiant. Priyavrata laid the child on the ground and praised her with hymns. The goddess spoke to him of karma, which rules birth, death and the gift of children. Then, by her power, she brought the child back to life.

She told the king that his son was born of a part of Narayana and would be famous as Suvrata. He would be learned, wealthy and pure, and would perform a hundred sacrifices. In return, she asked Priyavrata to spread her worship through the three worlds. The king promised, and the goddess blessed him and went back to heaven. From then on Priyavrata worshipped her on the sixth day of the bright fortnight of every month. The Brahma Vaivarta Purana closes the king's hymn with the words that, having praised the goddess in this way, Priyavrata obtained a son.

The Purana gives this blessing: when parents hear this story with devotion while their child is ill, the child is healed by the goddess's grace, and those who long for a child and hear her hymn faithfully for a year are blessed with a good, long-lived son.

Another story

Many families who keep Chhath also trace the worship of the Sun back to the Mahabharata. The Mahabharata does not name the Chhath vrata, but it tells of two great devotees of the Sun.

Karna, the son of the Sun god, used to worship the Sun every day until his back was warmed by its rays, and in that hour of worship he gave away whatever anyone asked of him.

When the Pandavas went to live in the forest, many Brahmanas followed them, and Yudhishthira did not know how to feed them. His priest, the sage Dhaumya, told him to take refuge in the Sun, who feeds all creatures through the food that grows by his light. Yudhishthira bathed, stood in the Ganga facing the Sun with his senses controlled, and sang the Sun's praise. The Sun god appeared and gave him a copper vessel. As long as Draupadi held it and had not yet eaten, the food cooked in it would never run out. Each day Yudhishthira fed the Brahmanas and his brothers first, and Draupadi ate last.