Stand at the Water's Edge on Sandhya Argh
The moment to build your evening around is sunset on Sunday, 15 November 2026. On the third day of Chhat Puja — Sandhya Argh, the Shashti tithi itself — devotees stand in the water and offer arghya, water and prayers raised to the setting sun. In Ahmedabad, Gujarat being one of the states where the festival is widely observed, that means the city's riverbanks and water bodies fill with families in turmeric-coloured clothes, the colour worn after the puja, with prasad arranged in baskets and the light going gold across the water. Sunset that day is at 5:38 pm, so arrive well before it to find your place. This is the rare Hindu festival that honours the setting sun as well as the rising one, and watching it happen at scale is the reason to be in the city on this date.
Come Back at Dawn for Usha Argh
The fourth day, Monday, 16 November 2026, completes the arc. Devotees return to the water for Suryodaya or Usha Argh, the Paarun Bihaniya offering made to the rising sun, standing in the water with prasad in hand. Sunrise on 15 November is 6:44 am, so plan on being in position at first light the following morning. The 36-hour fast without water that begins on the evening of Lohanda and Kharna ends here, when the fast is broken with Chhath Prasad. If you attend only one part of the festival, the two water-edge ceremonies — sunset on the 15th and sunrise on the 16th — are the pair worth arranging your trip around.
Follow the Four Days, Not Just the One
Chhat Puja is a four-day vrat, and the days before the main event shape what you'll see in the city. Knowing the sequence tells you when the markets are busiest and when the households you pass are quiet.
- Nahay-Khay — Friday, 13 November 2026. Devotees rise before sunrise, take a holy bath, clean the home thoroughly, and eat one specially prepared meal, kaddu bhat. Expect the shopping for the festival to be in full swing in the days around this.
- Lohanda and Kharna (Panchami) — Saturday, 14 November 2026. A daytime fast, Mother Earth worshipped in the evening, the fast broken, and then the strict 36-hour fast without water begins. Shashthi tithi runs from 11:24 pm on 14 November to 2:01 am on 16 November.
- Sandhya Argh (Chhath Puja) — Sunday, 15 November 2026. The sunset offering at the water's edge, turmeric-coloured clothes worn after the puja.
- Suryodaya/Usha Argh (Saptami) — Monday, 16 November 2026. The sunrise offering, and the fast broken with Chhath Prasad.
Note that the date is set by the Central body of Janakpurdham, Nepal, and applies worldwide — so what you see in Ahmedabad on these days is the same observance running across India and abroad.
Shop the Chhath Markets for the Offering
The festival runs on what gets bought in the days before it. The offerings are prepared on earthen stoves without modern utensils, and the traditional sweet is thekua — so the run-up is when you'll find baskets, earthen vessels, and the ingredients for prasad moving through the city's markets. Go in the days between Diwali and Nahay-Khay, when households are gathering what they need, and watch for the soop and baskets that carry the arghya to the water. The colour to look for is turmeric, worn by devotees after the Sandhya Argh puja. This is a festival observed across castes, so the crowds at the stalls are as mixed as the city itself.
Know What You're Watching, and Where It Sits in the Year
Chhat Puja worships Surya, the Sun God, and his wife Usha, also called Chhathi Maiya, and it is performed to express gratitude for the sun sustaining life. Devotees pray for prosperity, progress and family well-being, and traditional belief holds the puja can cure chronic diseases. It falls six days after Diwali, on Kartika Shukla Shasthi — the sixth day of the bright half of the Hindu month of Kartik — which places it in late October or mid-November. In 2026 that lands on Sunday, 15 November, with the surrounding days as listed above. It is a restricted holiday under the Government of India, meaning offices and businesses stay open, so the city keeps working around the observance rather than shutting down for it; it is an official holiday only in Bihar and Jharkhand. Gujarat is one of the states where the festival is celebrated, alongside Madhya Pradesh, Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh, Mumbai and Goa, with its strongest presence in Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh.
Book your travel to put you in Ahmedabad by the evening of 14 November, so you have the Saturday to find the markets and the Sunday to be at the water well before the 5:38 pm sunset. Stay through Monday morning for the sunrise arghya, and you'll have seen the whole festival from the first bath to the last offering.