Chhath Puja 2026 runs from Friday 13 November to Monday 16 November, with Sandhya Arghya on Sunday 15 November and Usha Arghya on Monday 16 November. It follows Diwali by a week, so many families make one long trip. The hard leg is not getting to Bihar, it is getting back between 16 and 22 November.
Updated August 2026 · HappyFares
Chhath is the one festival where the return journey is harder to book than the outbound, and almost nobody plans for it until it is too late.
What are the Chhath Puja 2026 dates?
Chhath is a four-day observance built around the setting and rising sun, and the two arghya days are what fix everyone’s travel.
| Day | Date (2026) | Ritual |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | Friday 13 November | Nahaay Khaay |
| Day 2 | Saturday 14 November | Kharna, fast begins |
| Day 3 | Sunday 15 November | Sandhya Arghya, offering to the setting sun |
| Day 4 | Monday 16 November | Usha Arghya, offering to the rising sun, fast ends |
The fast between Kharna and Usha Arghya runs around 36 hours without food or water, which is why the family needs to be in place well before Sunday, not arriving on it.
Why does Chhath travel behave differently from Diwali?
Diwali 2026 falls on Sunday 8 November. Chhath’s main day is Sunday 15 November. That one-week gap changes the whole trip shape.
A lot of families do not fly home twice. They leave around Diwali and stay through Chhath, which means an outbound in the first week of November and a return in the third. The absence is ten days or more, and the return date is shared by an enormous number of people who all finish the same ritual on the same morning.
Trains on these routes are heavily oversubscribed during Chhath, which pushes more people onto flights than the corridors normally carry. The pressure is real in both directions, but it is asymmetric.
Which routes carry the Chhath rush?
The inbound flow runs from the metros and the industrial and IT centres into Bihar, eastern Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand. Patna is the main gateway, with Darbhanga, Gaya, Ranchi, Varanasi and Lucknow taking substantial volume alongside it.
The origin cities are where the migrant workforce sits: Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Surat and Ahmedabad. If you are flying one of those pairs in November, you are in the wave whether or not you are observing Chhath.
Darbhanga is worth a specific mention. It is a smaller airport with far fewer daily departures than Patna, so its seats sell out earlier and rebooking options after a disruption are thin. If Darbhanga works for your family, book it early or plan on Patna with a road leg.
Why is the return leg the hard one?
Because it is compressed into a narrower window than the outbound. People travel home across a spread of dates depending on leave, but they come back after Usha Arghya, and Usha Arghya is one morning. The result is a heavy departure wave out of Patna, Darbhanga, Ranchi and Lucknow from 16 November through roughly 22 November.
Two things follow. First, book the return at the same time as the outbound rather than leaving it open, because the return dates are the scarce ones. Second, if your work allows it, return on 18 or 19 November rather than on 16 or 17 November, when the wave is at its thickest.
If you are travelling with elderly parents who have just completed the fast, avoid a first-flight-out departure on 16 November entirely. The ghats run late into the evening and start again before dawn, and nobody wants a 5 am airport run after that.
When should you book?
For a mid-November festival, the sensible window is already open. Fares on concentrated-demand dates rise as inventory sells, and the last two or three weeks before departure are where the steepest movement happens on routes with limited daily frequency.
Some practical tactics. Price the nearby dates, not just your ideal ones, because a single day either side often changes the fare materially on these corridors. Consider flying into Patna and taking the road to a smaller town rather than insisting on the closest airport. And if you are booking for several family members, look at whether splitting across two flights on the same day beats holding out for seats together on one.
Common Questions
What is the main day of Chhath Puja 2026?
Sandhya Arghya, the evening offering to the setting sun, falls on Sunday 15 November 2026. Usha Arghya follows at sunrise on Monday 16 November.
How many days after Diwali is Chhath?
In 2026, Diwali is on 8 November and Chhath’s main arghya is on 15 November, one week later. The gap varies slightly year to year because both follow the lunisolar calendar.
Which airport should I use for Chhath in Bihar?
Patna has the most flights and the most rebooking options. Darbhanga and Gaya can be closer to your destination but have far fewer daily departures, so book them earlier.
Is it cheaper to fly out before Diwali and stay through Chhath?
Often it works out better than two separate round trips, and it avoids booking two scarce return dates. Weigh it against the leave you have and the cost of the longer stay.
When is the worst day to fly back?
The two or three days immediately after Usha Arghya carry the heaviest return demand. If you can shift a day or two later, the wave thins noticeably.
Do flights get cancelled around Chhath?
Cancellations are not festival-specific, but November brings early fog risk in the north, which affects morning departures. Build a buffer if you have a connection.
Compare Patna, Darbhanga, Gaya and Ranchi flights for your Chhath dates on HappyFares, and check nearby dates before you lock the return.
Festival dates follow the lunisolar calendar and observance can vary locally. Confirm exact dates with your local panchang, and verify schedules and fares with the airline before you travel.
