Ahmedabad: Thousands of devotees, mainly the natives of Bihar and Eastern Uttar Pradesh thronged the river banks and other ghats made near various water bodies across Gujarat to celebrate Chhath festival and offer puja and holy water to sun god.

They will again assemble tomorrow morning to offer holy water to rising sun to mark the completion this most popular festival of Bihar and Eastern UP.

In Ahmedabad they assembled on the banks of river Sabarmati near Indira bridge and Meghaninagar, two of the main venues this evening.

The devotees carry specially prepared wheat made sweets (Thekua), earthen lamps and sugarcane in the evening of the first day of the two day Chhathh puja and offer water and prayer to the setting sun. Many of them also keep a complete fast (without even taking water) and go to the ‘Chhathh ghat’ in the wee hours next day to stand in knee deep water till the sun rises. They offer water to the rising sun before breaking the fast. A small clay or brick made structure is also erected on the bank for the puja. The festival marks the celebration of the new harvest with offerings given to sun god.

On the Meghaninagar side of the riverfront opposite Camp Hanuman Temple, the puja was attended mostly from the lower strata of the migrated Biharis while that near the Indira Bridge was also attended by many senior administrative officers of the Gujarat government hailing originally from Bihar/UP.

Meanwhile, Chhathh is also being observed in many other cities of Gujarat including Rajkot, Valsad, Surat, Vadodara and Jamnagar.

At some places including Ahmedabad the devotees had to face some difficulty due to the non-seasonal rain and cloudy weather which kept sun away from their sight.

CM Vijay Rupani has greeted the people on the occasion of Chhath.

 

DeshGujarat