Nepal honours the sun god
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The Chhat being celebrated on Friday all over Nepal, mostly in the Tarai, is the last of the three autumn festivals in the country. Researchers say it has pre-Vedic roots in the worship of the sungod and thanksgiving for a good harvest.
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Similar to the other big festivals, Dasain and Tihar, Chhat also has a somewhat subdued quality this year, with fewer gatherings and families meeting in seclusion. However, in many Tarai towns, where the Covid-19 peak seems to have passed, more people are up and about and there have been crowds at the ponds and lakes.
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The four-day festival honors the sun god by praying at sunrise and sunset near a water body. The first day of Chhath is Nahaye Khaye -- cleaning the house. The second-day, Kharna, is a day-long fast. On the third day, Sandhya Arghya, devotees prepare a bamboo basket decorated with various delicacies to offer to the sun god on the last day when devotees usually offer prayers to the rising sun by a river or lake and conclude their prayers. Various delicacies such as jaggery, laddus, fruits, are served at feasts.
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Besides the Tarai, Chhat is also marked in Kathmandu. But this year, unlike in the cities in the plains, there were only a few people flocked to Kalimati Bazar to buy foodstuff for the festival. Kathmandu is going through a relentless spread of the coronavirus, with the Valley reporting nearly 70% of news cases nationwide every day.