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Sandhya Arghya · Sandhya arghya (setting sun)

Sandhya arghya (setting sun) – Pacific Standard Time (UTC-8)

Sandhya Arghya in San Francisco is on Sunday, 15 November 2026; Sandhya arghya (setting sun) 2:57 – 4:58 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-8).

Nahay KhayKharnaSandhya ArghyaUsha Arghya
Day 3 of 4 · Main day

Muhurat for Sun, 15 Nov, San Francisco

Do3 windows
1 –
Sandhya arghya (setting sun)
Practice
2 –
Usha arghya (rising sun)
Practice
3 –
Parana
Practice

Then: Day 4, Mon, 16 Nov

Sandhya arghya (setting sun) vidhi
Do’s and don’ts

Do

  • Keep the prasad and the kitchen pure; make the prasad at home if you can (practice)
  • Help the vratin carry the offerings and keep the ghat clean (practice)
  • Many vratins sleep on the floor through the vrat (practice)

Don’t

  • Taste the prasad before it is offered (practice)
  • Cook onion, garlic or anything impure in the house during the vrat (practice)
  • Keep a dry fast against your doctor's advice (practice)
EssentialsSandhya arghyaVrat vidhiUsha arghya

Aarti, mantra and katha

Each one opens the same screen in Vandan

MantraSurya Arghya MantraRead · in Vandan
KathaChhathi Maiya (Shashthi Devi) KathaRead · in Vandan
Sunday, 15 November 2026Pacific Standard Time (UTC-8)
Kartika (Amanta) · Shukla Paksha
6
Shashthitill 12:31 PM, then Saptami
NakshatraU. Ashadhatill 9:59 AM, then Shravana
YogaGandatill 5:47 PM, then Vriddhi
KaranaTaitilatill 12:31 PM, then Garaja
Sunrise
Sunset
Moonrise
Moonset

Muhurat

Shubh

Brahma Muhurat – Abhijit Muhurat – Vijaya Muhurat – Aparahna Kaal – Pradosh Kaal – Nishita Kaal –

Ashubh

Rahu Kalam – Yamaganda – Gulika Kalam –
Deities of the dayShastra
WeekdaySuryaAll dayAlso: Shiva
TithiSkanda6:50 AM – 12:31 PMFrom 12:31 PM: Surya
NakshatraVishvedevas6:50 – 9:59 AMFrom 9:59 AM: Vishnu
Today's observancesShastra

Avoid

Neem – Sesame – Palmyra fruit (tala) – Coconut –

A prohibition binds while its tithi runs.

ChoghadiyaPractice (Gujarat–Rajasthan)

Day

Udveg – Char – Labh – Amrit · Vaar vela – Kaal · Kaal vela (choghadiya) – Shubh – Rog – Udveg –

Night

Shubh – Amrit – Char – Rog – Kaal – Labh · Kaal ratri – Udveg – Shubh –
LagnaShastra · Jyotisha

Sunrise to next sunrise

Tula · Chara – Vrishchika · Sthira – Dhanu · Dvisvabhava – Makara · Chara – Kumbha · Sthira – Meena · Dvisvabhava – Mesha · Chara – Vrishabha · Sthira – Mithuna · Dvisvabhava – Karka · Chara – Simha · Sthira – Kanya · Dvisvabhava – Tula · Chara –
Sthira (fixed)for work meant to last: entering a new home, installing a deity, a long puja.Chara (movable)for work that moves: a journey, a start meant to keep going.Dvisvabhava (dual)suits both kinds of work, lasting and moving.

Maas

Maas (Purnimanta)Kartika
SamvatVikram 2083 · Shaka 1948
WeekdaySunday
Sun signTula

Puja Vidhi

1
Make the thekua and fill the soop

• At home make thekua of wheat flour and jaggery and rice laddus, with great care for purity. • Fill the soop and daura with thekua, laddus, fruits of the season, sugarcane, coconut, a lamp and sindoor (practice)

2
To the ghat

• In the afternoon the family carries the baskets to a river, pond or tank, and women sing the Chhath songs on the way and on the bank (practice)

3
Arghya to the setting sun

• In the evening window this page shows, which ends at sunset, the vratin stands in the water facing west and holds up the soop. • Family members pour water or milk over the soop as the arghya (practice)

4
Kosi, where it was vowed

• A family whose wish was granted raises the kosi — a canopy of sugarcane stalks over earthen lamps and a pot — in the courtyard tonight (practice)

5
Through the night

• Carry the offerings home; the nirjala fast continues through the night until the dawn arghya (practice)

Guide

Chhath Puja

The day

  • Kartika Shukla Shashthi, six days after Deepavali, is the day of the evening arghya to the setting sun; the vrat closes at sunrise on the Saptami (practice)
  • It is the third day of a four-day vrat that begins on the Chaturthi (practice)

The four days

  • Chaturthi, nahay-khay: bath and one pure meal (practice)
  • Panchami, kharna: a day's fast closed in the evening with kheer and roti (practice)
  • Shashthi, sandhya arghya: arghya to the setting sun from the water (practice)
  • Saptami, usha arghya: arghya to the rising sun, then the parana (practice)

On this page

  • The evening arghya window, the dawn arghya window and the parana are worked out for your city.
Sandhya arghya — to the setting sun

When

  • On the Shashthi, in the evening window this page shows, which ends at sunset (practice)

Getting ready

  • The family carries the offerings to a river, pond or tank in bamboo baskets, the daura and the soop (practice)
  • The soop holds thekua, rice laddus, fruits of the season, sugarcane, coconut, a lamp and sindoor (practice)

The arghya

  • The vratin stands in the water facing west and holds up the soop to the setting sun (practice)
  • Family members pour water or milk over the soop as the arghya (practice)
  • Women sing the Chhath songs on the bank as the sun goes down (practice)

After sunset

  • The offerings are carried home, and the fast continues through the night (practice)
The fast and the food

Nahay-khay

  • On the Chaturthi the vratin bathes, the house is cleaned, and one meal is eaten: rice, chana dal and bottle gourd cooked in ghee with rock salt (practice)

Kharna

  • On the Panchami the vratin fasts all day and in the evening eats kheer of rice and jaggery with roti, after offering it (practice)
  • From then the fast is nirjala, without food or water, until the parana after the dawn arghya (practice)

The prasad

  • Thekua of wheat flour and jaggery, rice laddus and the fruits are made at home with great care for purity, often on a fresh hearth (practice)
  • No onion or garlic is cooked in the house through the vrat (practice)

If you cannot keep it dry

  • The aged, the unwell and pregnant women may take water or fruit; ask your doctor, and keep the arghyas with the family (practice)
Usha arghya and the parana

Before sunrise

  • On the Saptami the family returns to the water before dawn, in the window this page shows, which ends at sunrise (practice)
  • The vratin stands in the water facing east and waits for the sun with the soop raised (practice)

The arghya

  • As the sun rises, water or milk is poured over the soop as the arghya to the rising sun (practice)
  • The vratin prays to the sun and to Chhathi Maiya for the family's health, children and well-being (practice)

Breaking the fast

  • After the dawn arghya the vratin breaks the fast, often with the prasad or a little ginger and jaggery, in the parana window this page shows (practice)
  • The prasad is shared with family, neighbours and everyone at the ghat (practice)
Why the setting and the rising sun

The Veda

  • The Taittiriya Aranyaka tells of demons who fight the sun from its rising to its setting.
  • Those who know the Veda, facing east at sandhya, throw water consecrated with the Gayatri upward, and the water strikes the demons down.
  • It says that one who worships the sun as it rises and as it sets, knowing the sun to be Brahman, gains every good.

What this grounds

  • Sayana reads the passage as the rule of the daily sandhya worship and its arghya to the sun.
  • Chhath offers its two arghyas at the same two junctions, setting and rising; that frame, not the rest of the rite, is what the Veda speaks to.
Who keeps it, and where

Where

  • Above all in Bihar, Jharkhand, eastern Uttar Pradesh and the Terai of Nepal, and among families from there wherever they live (practice)

Who

  • Mostly women keep the vrat, and many men too; the one who keeps it is called the vratin or parvaitin (practice)
  • A family that takes up Chhath usually keeps it year after year (practice)

Chhathi Maiya

  • The vrat is offered to the sun and to Chhathi Maiya; accounts of her differ, some calling her the sun's sister and some the goddess Shashthi who guards children (practice)

A second Chhath

  • Many families also keep a Chhath in Chaitra, on the bright Shashthi, in the same way (practice)

Festive Food

ThekuaRice Laddu (kasar)Fruit Prasad (sugarcane, banana, coconut, citron)

Questions

When is Sandhya Arghya 2026 in San Francisco?

Sandhya Arghya in San Francisco is on Sunday, 15 November 2026; Sandhya arghya (setting sun) 2:57 – 4:58 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-8).

What should one not do on Sandhya Arghya?

Taste the prasad before it is offered (practice) Cook onion, garlic or anything impure in the house during the vrat (practice) Keep a dry fast against your doctor's advice (practice)

This day, in full — in Vandan

A reminder at the muhurat, the aarti to sing along, the katha to read.

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