This year, most celebrate Chhath Puja from their building terraces in Thane, Kalyan

Chhath Puja is celebrated widely among the north Indian community wherein women observe a three-day fast and present offerings to the rising and setting sun facing any water body

With an appeal from the state to avoid overcrowding at the water bodies, women from the north Indian community observed the Chhath Puja from the terrace of their residential buildings on Friday. Merely 3,000 to 4,000 people visited the seven lakes in the city compared to the one lakh people who visit every year.

A family marks Chhath Puja from Umapati Building terrace, near Godrej Hills, Kalyan. (Rishikesh Choudhary/HT Photo)

Chhath Puja is celebrated widely among the north Indian community wherein women observe a three-day fast and present offerings to the rising and setting sun facing any water body.

Dhananjay Singh, Founder, Rudra Pratishthan, an organisation that works for the welfare of the north Indian community in Thane, said, “People who visited the lakes were sent one at a time maintaining social-distancing. We had volunteers at various spots to ensure rules of wearing masks were followed. We took many precautionary measures. The artificial lake at Upvan saw hardly 70 devotees whereas Railadevi Lake had more than a thousand devotees visiting on Friday.”

Meanwhile, those who could not visit the lakes in the city carried out the ritual on their building terrace facing the setting sun on Friday.

“We are supposed to perform the rituals facing the setting sun on Friday and rising sun on Saturday. We spent the entire year celebrating low key. This ritual is for the well-being of the family and hence as part of that we chose to stay indoors. Every year the lakes are overcrowded and we did not want to be a part of that during the pandemic, hence we completed the rituals within our society terrace,” said Ritu Jha, 32, resident of Umapati building in Kalyan.