Importance of Chhath Puja in the culture and economy of Bihar

Chhath Puja, the great festival of folk faith, is a major and traditional festival of Bihar, which is celebrated with devotion, reverence, and dedication. This puja is dedicated to Sun God and Chhathi Maiya. Business worth more than thousands of crores takes place during Chhath festival in the whole of Bihar. However, no special study has been done on this yet. Economist NK Choudhary says that this amount is quite large, because every small and big business from rural areas to cities is involved in it. Every family of Bihar contributes to Chhath in some form or the other. Chhath Mahaparva is directly related to the economy of Bihar. Soup and daura have special significance in Chhath Puja. In such a situation, it is manufactured on a large scale in different areas of Bihar. It is also manufactured in the areas of Madhubani, Bhagalpur and Seemanchal. It is also ordered from other states many times. Most of the fruits for Chhath are ordered from other states. Apples are ordered from Kashmir and Himachal, oranges from Nagpur, coconuts from Kerala and Andhra Pradesh, bananas from Karnataka and Chennai. Apart from this, sugarcane is brought from Uttar Pradesh. Soop-Daura is made on a large scale in Bihar. Chhath festival is celebrated with great enthusiasm. This festival lasts for four days i.e. 96 hours, and people from the eastern communities living in different states along with whole India, especially Bihar and Jharkhand, participate in this festival. About 15 crore people including women, men and children participate in Chhath Puja rituals. According to an estimate, the country's economy can benefit by Rs 12 thousand crore in these 96 hours. as a culture and faith of Bihar. How Chhath Puja is connected to the common people as a cultural heritage to the economy of Bihar has been studied in this research article.