The Sun's Festivals — Makar Sankranti, Ratha Saptami, and Chhath
A guide to the festivals of Surya, the sun — Makar Sankranti and the turn to uttarayana, Ratha Saptami, and the demanding four-day Chhath — with the texts to recite.
Surya, the sun, is the one Hindu deity worshipped by facing the object of worship itself — no image or proxy required. His festivals are correspondingly direct: they turn on sunrise and sunset, on solstice and transit, on standing in water to greet the light. Three occasions stand out in the solar calendar.
Makar Sankranti — the turn toward the light
Makar Sankranti (around 14–15 January) marks Surya’s transit into Capricorn (Makara) and the beginning of uttarayana — the sun’s six-month northward journey, regarded as an especially auspicious half of the year. Unusually, it is one of the few Hindu festivals fixed to the solar calendar, so its Gregorian date barely shifts. It is kept across India under many names — Pongal in Tamil Nadu, Lohri the eve before in Punjab, Uttarayan with its kites in Gujarat, Bihu in Assam — with bathing in sacred rivers, offerings of sesame and jaggery, and harvest celebration.
Ratha Saptami — the sun’s chariot
Ratha Saptami falls on the seventh tithi of the bright fortnight of Magha (January–February) and is often described as Surya’s own day, marking his chariot’s turn to the north. It is observed, especially across South India, with a sunrise bath and the offering of arghya — water lifted to the rising sun — and with worship for health and vitality.
Chhath — the great sun vigil
Chhath is the most physically demanding of all these festivals, and one of the most moving. Observed chiefly in Bihar, eastern Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, and parts of Nepal, over four days in the bright fortnight of Kartika (October–November), it centres on offerings made to the setting and the rising sun while standing in the water of a river or tank. The devotees who keep it — often women, on behalf of their families — undertake a rigorous fast, at its peak without food or water, and offer arghya at dusk and again at dawn. Uniquely, Chhath honours not only the rising but the setting sun, a rare gesture of gratitude to the light even as it departs.
How Surya is worshipped
Across all these occasions the central act is the same: arghya, water offered to the sun at dawn (and, at Chhath, at dusk), poured from a copper vessel while facing east, often through the fingers so the light refracts through the falling stream. Many accompany it with Surya Namaskar, the twelve-posture salutation, and with recitation. Sunday, the sun’s weekday, is kept in the same spirit through the year.
Texts to recite
These festivals are the natural occasion for the Surya texts in our library. The Surya Chalisa invokes the sun in his twelve forms; the Gayatri Mantra, drawn from the Rigveda, is in its plain reading a meditation on the sun’s light quickening the intellect; and the Aditya Hridayam — taught by the sage Agastya to Rama on the battlefield — is recited at sunrise for strength against overwhelming odds. All are gathered on the Surya page.