The first day of Chhath Puja is known as “Nahay Khay,” symbolizing purity and cleanliness, marking the beginning of the Chhath fast.
On this day, devotees and their families thoroughly clean their homes and prepare a simple, sacred meal. Traditionally, the meal includes Rice, Chana dal, and Bottle gourd sabji etc. offered as a form of Bhog (sacred food) before starting the fast. Nahay Khay carries a significant meaning, as it represents the devotee’s first step toward worshiping the Sun God with a pure heart.
Bihar and Uttar Pradesh people love to deck on traditional attire and jewellery on the occasion of Chhath Pooja. On this Pooja one or two member of every family observes fasting and worships the dusk and dawn sun god.
The joy of sharing ‘chhath pooja nahay-khay Thali’ during Chhath Pooja has no bound, the Thali consists of-
- Steamed rice
- Chana dal with Lauki ( split Bengal gram with bottle gourd)
- Lauki (bottle gourd) ki sabji
- Aaloo Gobhi ki sabji (potato and cauliflower)
- Lauki (Bottle gourd) ke pakode(Fritters)
- August flower pakora/fritters and
- Curd
This is mandatory that the entire recipe should prepare without onion and garlic.
All above dishes together makes Thali perfect. You can go to the dishes just by a click as they are hyper-linked.
Chhath pooja nahay-khay Thali by Nag Ratna Sahu is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.