On the evening of Sunday, November 15, 2026, people will stand waist-deep in ponds and rivers across southern Nepal, facing west, holding bamboo trays of fruit up to the setting sun. Before dawn on Monday they will be back in the water, facing east. Chhath is four days of fasting that end with two offerings to the sun, one at dusk and one at dawn, and a visitor can watch both from the bank.
Chhath 2026 dates in Nepal
| Day | Date in 2026 | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Nahay Khay | Friday, November 13 (Kartik 27) | A ritual bath and one plain meal in a cleaned house |
| Kharna | Saturday, November 14 (Kartik 28) | A day-long fast, broken after moonrise with rice pudding |
| Evening offering (Sandhya Arghya) | Sunday, November 15 (Kartik 29) | The main day: a fast without water, then the offering at sunset |
| Morning offering (Usha Arghya) | Monday, November 16 (Kartik 30) | The offering at sunrise, after which the fast ends |
Sunset on Sunday is at 5:11 pm in Kathmandu and 5:10 pm in Janakpur. Sunrise on Monday is at 6:25 am in Kathmandu and 6:21 am in Janakpur (timeanddate.com).
The dates follow the moon. Chhath runs from the fourth to the seventh day of the waxing moon in the month of Kartik, which puts the evening offering on the sixth day, four days after Bhai Tika and the end of Tihar this year. Khabarhub, The Rising Nepal and the Kathmandu Post all reported the festival starting on Friday, November 13, and the government's holiday list for 2083 gives Kartik 29, November 15, as Chhath Parwa.
Two public holidays this year
Sunday, November 15 was already on the Home Ministry's list of public holidays for 2083. On Friday, November 13 the ministry added Monday, November 16, so that people could finish the morning rites (reported by the Kathmandu Post, Onlinekhabar and The Himalayan Times). Saturday is the weekly day off, so government offices are closed for three days running, November 14 to 16, and banks close on public holidays too.
For a visitor the effect is small: hotels and restaurants stay open, and tourist transport keeps running. Leave any bank or government errand for Tuesday. Every other holiday of the year is in the festival calendar for 2083.
What the festival is
Chhath is dedicated to Surya, the sun god, and to the goddess Chhathi Maiya, who is described as his sister. It is the big festival of the Madhesh, Nepal's southern plains, and of Bihar across the border. Khabarhub notes that hill communities have increasingly taken it up, which is why ponds in Kathmandu fill too.
The fast is the hard part. For the four days the household eats no fish, meat, garlic or onion. On Kharna the person keeping the fast goes without food through the day and breaks it after moonrise with kheer, a rice pudding cooked in a new clay pot. Then comes the long stretch: no food and no water through the evening offering on day three and a night spent awake, until the sun has risen on day four.
What you will see at the water
By mid-afternoon on the main day the banks are decorated with lights and banana plants, and families are carrying the offerings down in bamboo baskets and winnowing trays. Inside are coconuts, bananas, sugarcane and other fruit, with sweets made for the day: thekuwa, a fried biscuit of wheat flour, jaggery and ghee, plus bhusuwa and kasar. Small clay elephants and oil lamps sit among them.
As the sun drops, the people keeping the fast walk into the water, many of them women in red and yellow saris, and hold the trays up toward it until it has set. The offering is called arghya. The same thing happens at first light the next morning, facing the other way. Then the fast is broken with a little of the offering and some water.
A walk around Ganga Sagar in Janakpur during Chhath 2025: Walking FiririWhere to see Chhath in Nepal
Janakpur is where to see it at full scale. The city is built around sacred ponds, and the Kathmandu Post's 2025 report lists Chhath at Gangasagar, Dhanushsagar, Aragaja, Ratnasagar and five more. Gangasagar is the best known. The Janakpur guide covers getting there and the rest of the city.
Birgunj, the border town south of Kathmandu, gathers at Ghadiarwa pond, with Murli and Nagwa also drawing large crowds (Kathmandu Post, November 10, 2026). In Mahottari district, The Rising Nepal's report this year names Jaleshwor, Matihani and Gaushala.
Kathmandu is the easy option if you are not travelling south. No list of sites for 2026 had appeared in the reports read for this page on November 14. In 2025 the city prepared eight, among them Kamal Pokhari and Gaurighat on the Bagmati, and reports that year also name Thapathali and the Bishnumati bank. Kamal Pokhari, the pond in the photo at the top of this page, is the simplest for a visitor: it is central, The Rising Nepal reported in 2025 that it is free to enter while Gaurighat charges a small fee for its facilities, and Ratopati TV showed it being prepared again this year. Rani Pokhari, the historic pond in the middle of town, is another matter. The city kept it closed to Chhath worshippers in 2022 and restricted it again in 2024. The Kathmandu guide has the rest of the city.
If you go
- Be at the water about an hour before sunset on Sunday, or by 5:45 am on Monday. The morning is cold: bring a jacket.
- Watch from the bank. Nobody touches the offerings until the rites are finished (The Rising Nepal), so walk around the baskets and never step over them.
- Ask before photographing a family at close range.
- Come on foot for the last few streets. In 2025 the city asked people not to park at the celebration sites.
- Dress as you would for a temple, with shoulders and knees covered. The wider customs are in Nepali culture and traditions.
Have friends who keep the festival? The greeting card maker has a Chhath card in Nepali that you can put your name on.
After Chhath the festival season goes quiet for a few weeks. The next national holiday is Yomari Punhi on December 24, and Nepal in November covers what the rest of this month is like for travel.
