Bihar Quiz: Chhath, Sonepur Mela and Other Festivals

Chhath is kept for the Sun God, Surya, along with Chhathi Maiya, and the whole ritual is built around the sun: the vratis stand in water and offer arghya, that is water and prasad, first to the setting sun on the evening of shashthi and then to the rising sun…

The festival takes its very name from shashthi, the sixth day of the bright half of Kartik, on which the evening offering to the setting sun is made.

Thekua is a hard sweet made from wheat flour and jaggery, fried in ghee or oil and pressed in a wooden mould, and it is the offering most closely identified with Chhath.

Sonepur in Saran district lies opposite Patna at the point where the Gandak, coming down from Nepal, joins the Ganga, and the fair is held on that bank from Kartik Purnima.

The Harihar Kshetra fair at Sonepur opens on the full moon of Kartik and runs for about a month, with cattle, horses, birds and handicrafts on sale, a theatre ground, and traders from several states.

Sultanganj in Bhagalpur district is the starting point of the Shravani Mela.

Sama Chakeva is a festival of the Mithila region of north Bihar, beginning on Kartik Purnima, when the migratory birds arrive.

Gaya holds the Pitrapaksha Mela in the dark half of Ashwin, when families come from across the country to offer pind daan at the Vishnupad temple and at the appointed spots along the Falgu river.

Bihula Bishahari is the snake festival of the old Anga country, the belt around Bhagalpur, in which the goddess is worshipped as Bishahari and the sung story of Bihula, the young wife who is said to have brought her husband Bala Lakhandar back to life, is performed through the nights…

Rajgir, the old capital of Magadha in Nalanda district, holds the Malmas Mela in the intercalary month called Malmas or Adhimas, which returns about once in three years.