JANAKPURDHAM: Chhath — a festival of holiness, good will and faith — is being celebrated here in Janakpur today with fanfare.

The revellers have been enthusiastically celebrating the festival on the banks of ponds and rivers such as Sarobar Gangasagar, Dhanushsagar, Ramsagar, Biharkunda, Rukminisar, Argaja, Maharajsagar and Agnikunda since last night. The main ritual of the four-day festival is being observed by worshipping and making offerings to the setting sun.

The Chhath festival observed as common cultural symbol of the Tarai is celebrated as per religious tradition and much fanfare.

The festival is dedicated to the Sun God, with offerings made to the rising and setting sun. It is observed for four days, from Kartik Shukala Chaturthi to Kartik Shukla Saptami as per the lunar calendar.

It usually falls between October and November in the Gregorian calendar. The Sun considered as the God of energy and of the life-force, is worshiped during the Chhath festival to promote well-being, prosperity and progress.

The ritual of festival includes taking holy bath, fasting, standing and worshiping the Sun for a long time and offering Prasad and Argha to the ‘Rising and setting Sun”.

Chhath is a festival of bathing and worshipping that follows a period of abstinence and segregation of the worshiper from the main household for four days. During this period, the worshiper observes purity, and sleeps on the floor on a single blanket.

This is the only holy festival which has no involvement of any pandit (priest).The devotees offer their prayers to the setting sun, and then the rising sun in celebrating its glory as the cycle of birth starts with death. It is seen as the most glorious form of Sun worship.