Fasting, praying hard, preparing thekua for Chhaath Maiya

NAVI MUMBAI: Citizens are gearing up for Chhath Puja, the biggest religious event of the people in Bihar and UP. The four-day festival, replete with rigorous rituals, started on Monday.
“This is the only festival which does not involve any priest. We offer prayers to the setting sun and then the rising sun to celebrate the cycle of birth that begins with death,” said Arvind Kumar Sinha from Nerul.
Chhat puja is performed on Kartik Shukla Shashti, the sixth day of the month of Kartik in the Hindu calendar. Other rituals include cleaning up homes, taking holy baths, fasting and not drinking water and standing in water for hours.
“We fast on the third and fourth day and go without drinking water for the well-being of our family members. We stand in knee-deep water early at dawn to pray to sun god. We prepare thekua — a fried sweetened mixture of jaggery, flour with ghee — for Chhath Maiya. We also offer seasonal fruits on a big sieve to the deity,” said Puspa Sinha, housewife and a devout follower of the festival.
The women keep fast on the second day and prepare roti and kheer with jaggery as prasad. Ramesh Singh and his wife Anita come all the way from Jatswar village in Uran every year to perform the holy rites at the Nerul pond near Palm Beach Road.