Stand at the Water's Edge on the Evening of November 15
It is just before 5:38 PM, the moment the sun drops below the horizon on Sunday, November 15, 2026, and the ghats along Delhi's Yamuna are already full. Women in turmeric-yellow saris stand knee-deep in the water, bamboo baskets balanced on their hips, each one packed with sugarcane stalks, coconuts, thekua, and seasonal fruit. Brass vessels of milk and water are raised as the light goes orange, then red, then gone. This is Sandhya Argh, the sunset offering of Chhath Puja — Surya Sashthi — and in a city whose population draws heavily from Bihar, Jharkhand and eastern Uttar Pradesh, it is one of the largest and most visible festivals of the year.
Chhath is celebrated six days after Diwali, on Kartika Shukla Shasthi, the sixth day of the bright half of the Hindu month Kartik. The 2026 dates fall as follows:
- Nahay-Khay — Friday, November 13 (Karthik Shukla Chaturthi)
- Lohanda and Kharna — Saturday, November 14 (Karthik Shukla Panchami)
- Sandhya Argh / Chhath Puja — Sunday, November 15 (Karthik Shukla Shashti), the main day
- Suryodaya / Usha Argh — Monday, November 16 (Karthik Shukla Saptami)
On November 15 the sun rises at 6:44 AM and sets at 5:38 PM. The Shashthi tithi runs from 11:24 PM on November 14 to 2:01 AM on November 16, and the Saptami tithi from 2:01 AM on November 16 to 4:20 AM on November 17. Plan your evening around the sunset and your morning around the sunrise.
Follow the Four Days, from the First Bath to the Rising Sun
Chhath is a four-day observance, and you can watch each stage unfold if you know what you are looking at. On Day 1, devotees rise before sunrise, take a holy bath — traditionally in the Ganges, though in Delhi the Yamuna ghats serve — clean the home, and eat a single specially prepared meal known as kaddu bhat. On Day 2, the daytime fast is kept, Mother Earth is worshipped in the evening, the fast is broken, and then a strict 36-hour fast without water begins. Day 3 is the main event: the Sanjhiya Argha is offered at sunset on a river bank, and turmeric-coloured clothes are worn after the puja. Day 4 brings the Paarun Bihaniya Argha at sunrise, when devotees stand in the water and offer aragh and prasad to the rising Sun, then break their fast with Chhath Prasad.
The festival is observed by Hindus across India and abroad, across castes. It is performed to thank the Sun for sustaining life and to seek prosperity and family well-being; some traditions hold that it cures chronic diseases such as leprosy. The strongest celebrations are in Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh, and it is also observed in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh, Mumbai and Goa. In Delhi, that means the observance is carried by the city's large migrant communities from those states — which is exactly why the ghats and neighbourhoods fill the way they do.
Know What the City Does, and What It Does Not
Chhath is a restricted holiday under the Government of India: government offices and businesses remain open in Delhi. It is an official public holiday only in Bihar and Jharkhand. Do not expect the city to shut down — expect it to gather at the water instead.
What you can reliably count on each year is the ritual observance itself: families converging on Yamuna ghats and on neighbourhood ponds and water bodies across the city for the sunset and sunrise offerings, with prasad prepared at home and carried to the water in bamboo baskets. The exact date for 2026 is traditionally decided by the Central body of Janakpurdham, Nepal, and applied worldwide — so November 15, 2026 is the main Chhath Puja day to build your plans around.
Note that the sources consulted for this guide contain no Delhi-specific 2026 event, market, concert, parade or official tourism programme information. Treat the ghat gatherings as the main thing to attend, and keep your expectations calibrated accordingly.
Eat What the Festival Eats
The food of Chhath is specific and worth seeking out. The Chhath Prasad that breaks the fast on the final morning is the centrepiece, and the Day 1 meal of kaddu bhat — pumpkin and rice — is the one specially prepared dish of the observance. The baskets you will see carried to the water hold sugarcane, coconut and seasonal fruit alongside the prasad. If you are near a ghat on the evening of November 15 or the morning of November 16, you are watching the food of the festival being offered, not sold — this is a household observance, and the prasad is shared within families and communities.
Plan Around the Light
Two moments define a Chhath in Delhi: the sunset of Sunday, November 15 at 5:38 PM and the sunrise of Monday, November 16 at 6:44 AM. Arrive at the water well before each, position yourself where you can see the baskets raised, and stay for the moment the offering is made. The days before — November 13 and 14 — are when households prepare, clean and cook, so the neighbourhoods where Delhi's Bihari, Jharkhandi and eastern UP communities live take on their own rhythm in the run-up.
Build your trip around those two dates. Book your travel for the weekend of November 14–16, 2026, keep the evening of the 15th and the dawn of the 16th free, and let the city's ghats show you a festival that Delhi observes quietly, devoutly, and at the water's edge.