At Chhath Ghat, devotees offer various puja items including coconuts on bamboo poles to the setting sun. After that, they sit on the ghat for hours and offer prayers. Some devotees return home at night and perform the ritual of filling the koshi in the fire.
What you should know
The devotees, who started the religious and traditional rituals of Chhath festival with the 'Nahaykhay' ritual on Saturday, are performing the 'Kharna' ritual on Sunday. In this ritual, also known as 'Rasyau Roti', the devotees worship Chhathi Mata at their homes on Sunday evening and eat kheer (Rasyau) and puri cooked with milk and jaggery.
It is customary for the devotees to give the rasya roti cooked by the devotees to other family members and friends as prasad. Some devotees also invite their neighbors in advance to eat rasya roti.
It is customary for someone to come to the devotee's house to worship Chhathi Mata and send them off with reverence by feeding them rasya roti. The devotees and others who eat rasya roti remain pure vegetarians throughout the day, avoiding fish, meat, garlic, and onions.
After eating rasya roti on Sunday evening, the devotees observe a waterless fast on Monday and break their fast only by eating prasad after worshipping the setting sun in the evening and the rising sun in the morning on Tuesday. On Monday evening, the devotee and all his family members will reach the attractive Chhathi Ghat, which is built on a reservoir such as a pond, river, or lake near their house.
It is customary for the family members of the devotees, dressed in new clothes, to carry the Chhathi, the holy basket containing the puja paraphernalia, to the ghat. Especially the male members of the family fulfill this responsibility.
At Chhath Ghat, devotees offer various puja paraphernalia, including coconuts, to the setting sun on a bamboo pole. After that, they sit at the ghat for hours and perform puja. Some devotees return home at night and perform the ritual of filling the koshi in the aang.
Damodar Prasad Yadav of Harpatganj says that devotees do not need a priest to perform puja during this festival. Chhath is the only festival in which devotees do not need a priest. The devotees worship themselves. It is believed that this fast, which worships the symbolic form of Chhathi Mata, i.e., a clay mound and a clay elephant, will fulfill the wishes of the devotees.
When the Koshi is filled in this way, family members, relatives, and neighbors also participate in the worship there. The devotees who stay at the ghat sing bhajans there all night long.
In every household of the devotees, special flour cakes are prepared on Sunday evening and Monday morning. The female members of the family help the devotees in this work. While preparing the prasad in this way, utmost care is taken to ensure purity and sanctity. For the Chhath festival, the ghats of Birgunj, including Ghadiarwa, Ranighat, Nagwa, Murli, etc., are decorated like brides.
