Rakesh Chaurasi and Seraj Anwar  

In India, traditional festivals tend to erase the religious difference between the Hindus and Muslims and the four-day Chhat festival majorly celebrated in eastern India is no exception. The festival involves the devotees keeping a fast and making offerings as a thanksgiving to Lord Sun for his bounties on earth and praying to Chhati Maiya, the mother of Sun. 

Rehana Khatun and Mallika Khatun of Gopalganj town of Uttar Pradesh are celebrating Chhat too; they are keeping a fast and going to make offerings of food and other essentials for life to the Sun on Sunday and Monday. 

Rehana Khatun and Malika Khatun told the Network18 portal that they had made a wish for Chhath Maiya to fulfill. The wish was that their house is built as a thanksgiving they would pray to Chhati Mata by keeping a fast. That's why they are buying worship material in the market.

Rehana says in the past whenever her family started construction of the house, something happened to delay it. 

Taking it as a divine signal, Rehana prayed to Chhatti Maiya and sought her blessings for house construction. This year, Rehana’s house is under construction and she is fulfilling the promise of observing a fast and performing other rituals of thanksgiving.

Malika Khatun said many Muslim families in the area have been celebrating the Chhat Poja festival as part of their traditions. She referred to another Muslim family - the Nonias - who arhave been blessed with a son by Chhati Maiya and they would pray to the Goddess and celebrate the festival.

Sahana Khatun said she desperately wanted a son and when someone told her a year ago to pray to Chhati Maiya on the festival and make a wish, she did it and today she is blessed with a baby boy. “I made this wish during the Covid and now have a son,” she said.

A Muslim woman making chullahs on the banks of Ganga in Patna, Bihar

In Patna, the capital of Bihar where this is the prime festival, Muslim women are making earthen hearths (challah) for the devotees on the bank of the Ganga where they would cook and perform the Chhat Poja – at the time of sunset on Sunday and early morning on Monday.

It’s mandatory for those observing the Chhat fast – mostly the lady of the House – to cook food on a chullah by burning mango wood for offering the same to the Sun.

Shabnam Khatoon, Sajiya Khatoon, Sanjeeda Khatoon are some of the Muslim women selling these freshly made chullahs on the banks of the Ganga.

This is a 35-year-old tradition. These chullahs are made by observing high levels of hygiene including not eating mutton or fish. Shabnam Khatoon says he starts making these chullas much in advance for the festival.

“I feel good to do this auspicious work with my own hands. The earthen stove is pure for making the offerings of the festival. Our Hindu brothers take a large number of chulhas from us,” she said.The work of making chullahs starts a week in advance. Each of the 50 to 60 Muslim women makes 500 to 600 chulhas on average.

Sajiya Khatoon says for the chullah she buys soil from the clean area of ​​the Punpun river. She hand-picks pebbles and stones from the soil. She mixes straw to knead a soil dough and prepares chullah with it.

Chhat festival is celebrated across Eastern UP, Bihar, Jharkhand etc and also in other states where people of this region have shifted for economic reasons. 

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Indian Railways ran 130 special trains for Chhat pilgrims. Chhat Ghats were built in dozens of cities of the country including metros like Delhi, Mumbai to enable the devotees to make an offering – on the first day to the sun as it sets and the next day when it rises.