Chhath Maiya (Pilgrimage)

Chhaṭhī Maiyā is the Sun-goddess (Sūrya's sister Ṣaṣṭhī) of the Bihari, Eastern UP, Jharkhand, and Mithila diaspora. Her four-day festival Chhath Pūjā is one of the most austere of all Hindu festivals — fasting without water for 36 hours, offering to the rising and setting sun. Chhath is the archaic Vedic word for "six" (Sanskrit ṣaṣṭha); the goddess Ṣaṣṭhī is mentioned in the Ṛgveda (and later in the Atharvaveda). She is one of the few Vedic goddesses who survives intact in popular