Chhat (छठ ) Vrat Katha
There is a provision to celebrate Chhath festival (chhath) on the Shashthi of Kartik Shukla Paksha. This four-day festival is celebrated as the main festival in Bihar. It is believed that you can get rid of every kind of problem by the tradition of offering arghya to the setting sun.
According to mythological beliefs, King Priyavrata and his wife Malini had no children. The king and queen were very unhappy with this. One day, he performed a Putryosti yajna with Maharishi Kashyap to get children. After completion of the yagna, Maharishi gave Kheeer to Malini.
Consuming Kheer, Malini became pregnant and after 9 months she gave birth to a son but her son was born dead. On discovering this, the king became very sad and made up his mind to commit suicide due to despair, But as soon as the king tried to commit suicide, Devasena, the psyche daughter of God appeared to him and said that I am Shashthi Devi and I offer people the good fortune of the son. Apart from this, all the wishes of those who worship me with true heart are fulfilled.
If Rajan you worship me with my law, then I will give you son Ratna. According to the Goddess, King Priyavrat worshiped Goddess Shashthi lawfully on the day of Kartik Shukla’s Shashthi. As a result of this puja, queen Malini became pregnant and gave birth to a beautiful son. Since then, the holy festival of Chhath started being celebrated.
According to the legend, Draupadi kept Chhath Vrat during the Mahabharata period when the Pandavas lost all their royalty in gambling. Pleased with the fast of Draupadi, Shashthi Devi returned the Pandavas to their Rajapat.
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Similarly, by observing Chhath fast, there is happiness and prosperity in people’s homes. According to the mythological folklore, in the Mahabharata period, the Sun son Karna first worshiped the sun god and it is said that Danavir Karna used to offer arghya to the sun while standing in water for hours. Karna became a great warrior by the grace of Sun God. Even today, this method of arghya donation is prevalent in Chhath.