The most-awaited festival of Bihar, Chhath Puja will be celebrated in November this year. The Mahaparv is one of the major festivals of Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh. It is believed that Chhath Mata is the sister of Sun God. Chhath Mai is pleased by worshiping the Sun God and fulfills all the desires of the mind. Chhath starts with Nahay Khay and the festival lasting 4 days ends with Usha Arghya.
The Holy festival will start on November 18 and end on November 20. Apart from Bihar, Chhath puja is also observed in Jharkhand, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal as well as the Madhesh region of Nepal. Chhath puja is also called Chhathi, Chhath Parv, Dala, Chhath Dala Puja, and Surya Shashthi. During this festival women of the house observe fast and pray for the wellbeing of their children and family.
Chhath puja is celebrated 6 days after Diwali on sukhla paksha sasthi of Kartik month. The Puja begins from the Nahay-Khay. The second day of Chhath puja is known as Kharna. On Kharna, devotees observe Vrat for a period of almost 8 to 12 hours. The 3rd day of Chhath puja rituals is known as Sandhya Arghya. On this day, after preparing the prasad, devotees take a dip in the holy water body in the evening and worship the Sun god and chhathi Maiya.
Whenever someone talks about Chhath Puja what comes first in our mind is ‘Thekua’. A special delicacy is prepared to offer as prasad during the festival and is famous across the world. Thekua is a sweet that is made of wheat flour, sugar or jaggery, coconut along with ghee and dry fruits. All the ingredients are rolled together to form small tikkis, which are then deep-fried in ghee. Also known as khajuria or thikari, thekua is widely prepared in the states of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, and West Uttar Pradesh.
It is believed that people started making Thekuas as it can be easily prepared with such locally available ingredients/products which included wheat, jaggery, coconut, and ghee. Thekuas are also popular because they have a longer shelf life and because of its non-perishable characteristics could be packed for roads. The ingredients used to make Thekua have various health benefits too.
Traditionally, the sweet delicacy was prepared on earthen chulhas using mango wood as fuel. However, nowadays, people prefer preparing it using bronze cookware.
Authentic Recipe of Thekua:
Ingredients:
- 200-gram Flour
- 20 gram Ghee
- Almonds and cashew nuts
- 250 gram Sugar
- 250 ml Cooking oil
Method:
- Take crushed almonds and cashew nuts, mix with ghee and sweet soda.
- Keep mixing for about 5 minutes.
- Add sugar to water and bring to boil.
- Add water to the mixture to form dough.
- Add oil in a vessel and let it heat.
- Work with dough to make small roundels and drop them in oil to fry.
- Fry until crisp, golden brown.
- Serve hot.
