Chhath Puja 2026 Arghya Time by City: Sunset & Sunrise in India, USA, UK, Gulf, Australia, Mauritius & Fiji

Chhath is Surya Shashthi: the main offering is made at sunset on the Shashthi (sixth day) of the bright half of Kartika, and the vrat closes at the next sunrise, on Saptami. Each of the four days is tied to its own tithi, and in 2026 they line up cleanly in India. Chaturthi is running at sunrise on Friday, November 13 for Nahay Khay. Panchami covers the whole of Saturday, November 14 for Kharna. Shashthi begins late on Saturday night and lasts until 2:02 AM on Monday, so it is in force at Sunday's sunset in every Indian city. And Saptami has begun by Monday's sunrise for Usha Arghya.

The dates are the same in the UK, Europe, the Gulf, Africa, Mauritius, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand and Fiji, and a widely used online Panchang lists the same Sunday for New York and Los Angeles too. The two edge cases - the Americas and the far east of the diaspora - are covered in the next section.

A tithi starts and ends at one instant for the whole world; sunset and sunrise do not. So for every city in this guide the tithi was checked at the actual moment of local sunset on Sunday and local sunrise on Monday. Across India, the Gulf, the UK, the Netherlands, South Africa, Mauritius, Singapore, Malaysia and Perth, both match the textbook pattern: Shashthi at Sunday's sunset, Saptami at Monday's sunrise.

The Americas are the one place where the calendar is genuinely arguable this year. In North America Shashthi runs from 12:55 PM EST on Saturday, November 14 to 3:32 PM EST on Sunday, November 15 - which is 2:32 PM in Chicago and Houston and 12:32 PM on the West Coast. It ends an hour or more before Sunday's sunset. Read strictly by the sunset rule, Saturday evening would be the Shashthi sunset - but Sunday morning would then still be Shashthi, not Saptami, so neither weekend pairing satisfies both arghyas. A widely used online Panchang calculated for New York and Los Angeles lists Sunday, November 15 as Chhath, as in India (Shashthi is the tithi in force at Sunday's sunrise there), and keeping the Indian dates also lets the four days run alongside family in Bihar and Jharkhand. Sunday-Monday is the sensible plan. If your family priest follows the sunset rule strictly and chooses Saturday, Saturday's sunset is within a minute of the Sunday times in the tables below.

In Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland and Suva the edge is on Monday morning instead. Sunday's sunset falls well inside Shashthi, but Saptami begins after Monday's sunrise - at 7:32 AM in Sydney and Melbourne, 8:32 AM in Suva and 9:32 AM in Auckland. Usha Arghya is still Monday's sunrise: it is the sunrise that completes the fast begun at Sunday's Shashthi sunset, and no other morning can do that. In Perth, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur Saptami has already begun by Monday's sunrise.

Sunset and sunrise here are the standard Panchang definition: the moment the upper edge of the Sun's disc touches a flat horizon, allowing for atmospheric refraction. They were computed for each city's own latitude and longitude with the same astronomical method used for the other city-wise festival guides on this site. As a check, the same calculation gives Patna 5:00 PM and 6:07 AM, New Delhi 5:27 PM and 6:44 AM, Kolkata 4:52 PM and 5:49 AM, and Mumbai 6:00 PM and 6:46 AM - matching the published Panchang values for those cities to within a minute.

Two practical notes. First, the times are for a level horizon; behind trees, buildings or a raised far bank the Sun disappears a few minutes earlier, so be in the water and ready well before the listed sunset. Second, for Usha Arghya the vratis traditionally stand in the water before dawn and offer arghya as the first rays appear, so arrive at least half an hour before the listed sunrise. Clocks have already changed by mid-November: the USA and Canada are on standard time from November 1 and the UK and Europe from October 25, while Australia and New Zealand are on daylight time. Every time below is local clock time for that city.

The spread within India alone is more than an hour: the Sun sets in Kolkata at 4:52 PM and in Mumbai at 6:00 PM, which is why every ghat committee announces its own time.

Times are Eastern, Central or Pacific Standard Time. Sunset comes early in a northern November - before 4:45 PM in New York, Chicago and Seattle - so a Sunday Sandhya Arghya means preparing the prasad and reaching the water by mid-afternoon.

Canada follows the same Sunday-Monday plan as the USA, with the same note about Shashthi ending on Sunday afternoon.

In Britain and the Netherlands Shashthi begins on Saturday evening and lasts until 8:32 PM GMT (9:32 PM in Amsterdam) on Sunday, so Sunday's sunset is cleanly inside it and Saptami is running at Monday's sunrise. The Netherlands is home to the Surinamese Hindustani community, whose forebears went to Suriname from Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh, which is why Bhojpuri traditions such as Chhath are part of Dutch Hindu life. Times are GMT for the UK and CET for the Netherlands.

The Gulf keeps the Indian dates without any tithi question: Shashthi covers Sunday's sunset and Saptami has begun by Monday's sunrise in every city here. Note how different neighbouring countries are: Doha's sunset reads 46 minutes earlier on the clock than Dubai's, because Qatar is an hour behind the UAE.

Near the equator sunset and sunrise barely move through the year, so Singapore and Kuala Lumpur have an almost exactly twelve-hour night between the two arghyas. In the Southern Hemisphere it is late spring: Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland, on daylight saving time, have a late Sandhya Arghya and a very early Usha Arghya - a short night, so the 36-hour nirjala fast feels the same length but the rest between offerings is brief. As explained above, in Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland Saptami begins a little after Monday's sunrise; the Monday arghya is still correct.

Many Hindu families in Mauritius, Fiji and South Africa descend from indentured labourers who sailed from Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and Bhojpuri rituals came with them. In Port Louis, Durban and Johannesburg the tithis fall exactly as in India. In Suva, the most easterly city in this guide, Saptami begins at 8:32 AM on Monday, three hours after sunrise - the Monday-morning arghya stands, for the reason given above. Usha Arghya in Durban is before 5:00 AM, the earliest of any city here.

You do not need a muhurat table for Chhath - you need your own sunset on Sunday, November 15 and your own sunrise on Monday, November 16. The city Panchang tool linked below this article gives both, with the tithi, for any location; a national weather service or a sunrise-sunset table for your exact town gives the same times. Do not borrow a time from a city a long way east or west of you: within one time zone the Sun sets about four minutes later for every degree of longitude you move west, and latitude shifts it further, so a city 300 km away can be fifteen minutes out.

Chhath is traditionally kept at a river or pond, standing in the water for the arghya, and many diaspora communities arrange a shared ghat at a lake, river bank or beach. Where you join one, follow the organisers' timing and the local rules: councils and park authorities in many countries require permission for gatherings, open flames and anything placed in the water, and offerings, flowers and lamps should come back out of the water with you. In mid-November, rivers and lakes in North America, the UK and Europe are cold enough to be dangerous - keep immersion short, have warm clothes and a blanket ready at the water's edge, and never stand in water alone in the dark. In Australia, South Africa, Mauritius and Fiji, choose a calm, supervised spot rather than an open surf beach.

Where none of that is practical, families stand in a tub, a children's pool or a large basin filled with water at home, in a garden or on a balcony facing the setting and rising Sun. The essence of the vrat - purity, the nirjala fast, the soop and daura of prasad, and the arghya offered to the Sun as it sets and rises - is kept in full. Bamboo soop and daura, and the ingredients for thekua, are usually available from Indian grocers abroad in the run-up to Chhath; order early, as stocks are limited.

Chhath - from the Hindi for six - is worship of Surya, the one deity every person can see, together with Chhathi Maiya. It is unusual among Hindu festivals in honouring the setting Sun first and the rising Sun second; in the Chhath tradition the evening offering is often described as made to Pratyusha, the Sun's last light, and the morning offering to Usha, the dawn. There is no priest at the centre of the ritual: the vrati, most often the mother of the household though men keep it too, performs every step herself, and the discipline lies in purity and the nirjala fast rather than in mantras.

Chhathi Maiya is identified with Shashthi Devi, the goddess of the sixth day who protects newborns and young children - the same Chhathi whose rite is performed on the sixth day after a birth. The Brahmavaivarta Purana describes Shashthi Devi as the guardian of children, and in folk songs Chhathi Maiya is the Sun's sister. That is why the vrat is kept above all for the health and long life of children and family. Chhath also falls twice a year: the Kartika observance in this guide, and Chaiti Chhath in the spring month of Chaitra.

The tithis themselves carry meaning. In the classical list of tithi deities, Shashthi belongs to Skanda (Kartikeya), whose consort Devasena is identified with Shashthi Devi, and Saptami belongs to Surya - so Chhath begins in the goddess's tithi and closes on the Sun's own day. The month matters too. Kartika is the month in which the Sun transits Tula (Libra), the sign of its debilitation, and in 2026 the Usha Arghya on Monday morning is the last sunrise before the Sun enters Vrishchika (Scorpio) at about 7:45 PM IST that evening. Chhath honours the Sun at the lowest point of its yearly strength. At Sunday's Sandhya Arghya the Moon is in Uttara Ashadha, a nakshatra ruled by the Sun - true at sunset in every city in this guide except those in the Americas, where the Moon has moved on to Shravana.

In a birth chart the Sun is the karaka of the self, vitality, the father, authority and reputation. A Sun that is debilitated, placed in the 6th, 8th or 12th house, or joined by Rahu, Ketu or Saturn often shows up as low confidence, friction with a father or with superiors, or a recurring dip in energy - and the running Dasha decides when those themes come forward. The classical supports are simple: water offered to the rising Sun daily from a copper vessel, recitation of the Aditya Hridayam from the Ramayana, and respect and service towards one's father. A ruby, by contrast, is never worn on a general rule; whether the Sun should be strengthened at all depends on which houses it rules in your chart.