With the end of Chitragupta puja and Bhaiduj devotional songs are reverberating in the air indicationg the arrival of Chhath Mahaparv. The people are busy making preperations to pay reverence to the Sun God.
With ‘Nahai-khai’, the first day of the four-day festival, falling on Monday, puja materials, including ‘soop’, ‘daura’, earthen stove, firewood and fruits such as coconut,
sugarcane, banana, oranges and apples have flooded the town markets.
“I’ve taken out all the utensils which are used for making ‘prasad’ and cleaned them. My shopping list is also ready, but have bought the foodgrains including rice, wheat and pulses today,”teacher Poonam Sinha said adding the fruits for ‘arghya’ and ‘prasad’ for Wednesday will be bought on the same day.
Markets are teeming with Chhath Puja materials as wood, clay stoves, coconuts, ‘soop’ and ‘daura’ (or ‘tokri’) on Station Road and near Jhanda Chowk. “Quite a few people who wanted to make the arrangements in advance have already made their purchases. The rates have dipped slightly from last year,” said Madhkar Anand.