CHANDIGARH, Nov 14: For the Uttar Pradesh and Bihar migrants in the city, today was a day to invoke the Sun God for a wish. The migrants celebrated the Chhatt Puja in the evening, one of the most important annual festivals in the states. Fasting since sunrise today, hundreds of women and men from the community offered their prayers to the Sun in order to win their individual wishes.According to customs, the women of UP and Bihar pray to Sun asking their wishes, either for a husband, son, family welfare, or anything else they need, to be fulfilled. Sieves heaped with fruits, ghee, wheat sweatmeats, vegetables and sweets, the women held up their offerings to the Sun during dusk, standing knee-deep in water. This is the custom.
In Hallo Majra, the biggest UP and Bihar migrants' settlement colony, the Panchayat Ghar maidan was jampacked with men, women and children in the Sunday best. Most women wore prominent vermilion in their hair, while for the children it was Diwali once again, as was indicated by the cracker bursts. A tiled pond was created in the field to enable the dip inseparable from the Chhatt Puja. Those of them sitting around the sirsopta, an icon made of bricks and mud and resembling a linga, sang to summon their God.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.