Chhath Puja 2026 in Brescia: Events, Puja & Where to Celebrate

Chhath Puja — the ancient Vedic festival of gratitude to Surya, the Sun God — is celebrated by one of Italy's largest and most rooted South Asian communities right here in Brescia and the surrounding Lombardy region. In 2026, the main Chhath puja (Sandhya Arghya) falls on Sunday, 15 November, with the four-day celebration running from Friday, 13 November through Monday, 16 November.

For the tens of thousands of Indians, Nepalis, and South Asians living in Brescia province — many of them originally from Bihar, Jharkhand, and eastern Uttar Pradesh, the heartland of Chhath — this festival is one of the most spiritually significant occasions of the year. It is also increasingly visible in Italian public life: the sight of devotees in white and orange, standing at the river's edge with bamboo platters of prasad at sunset, has become a recognizable feature of the Bresciano autumn.

The Four Days of Chhath Puja 2026

Chhath is not a single-day festival but a four-day cycle of purification, fasting, and offering:

• Day 1 — Nahaay Khaay (Friday, 13 November): Devotees bathe in a river or clean water body, then eat a single meal of chana dal, lauki (bottle gourd), and rice cooked in earthen pots. This day marks the beginning of the period of physical and spiritual purification.
• Day 2 — Kharna (Saturday, 14 November): A full day of fasting, broken at sunset with prasad of kheer (rice pudding cooked in new clay pots) and roti. After sharing the kheer with family and neighbors, fasting resumes and will not break until after the final arghya.
• Day 3 — Sandhya Arghya (Sunday, 15 November): The most important and emotionally powerful day. As the sun descends toward the horizon, devotees gather at a riverbank or other water body in large numbers. Standing in the water with offerings arranged on bamboo flat baskets — sugarcane, seasonal fruits, thekua (a Bihari wheat and jaggery sweet), and coconut — they chant folk songs dedicated to Chhath Maiya and offer arghya (water cupped in both hands and poured outward) to the setting sun.
• Day 4 — Usha Arghya (Monday, 16 November): Before dawn, devotees return to the water to offer arghya to the rising sun, completing the ritual. The fast, which may have lasted 36 hours or more, is broken with prasad shared among all present.

Where to Celebrate and Connect in Brescia

Maha Shiv Shakti Mandir Brescia

The Maha Shiv Shakti Mandir Brescia, located in Botticino Sera (25082 Brescia) and also at Via G. Garibaldi 54, Botticino BS, is the principal Hindu temple serving Brescia's South Asian community. The mandir is active on Facebook at facebook.com/mahashivshaktimandirbrescia and hosts celebrations for Mahashivaratri, Navratri jagran, Bhagwati jagran, and other major Hindu festivals across the year. While Chhath Puja is traditionally a waterfront ceremony rather than a temple ritual, Maha Shiv Shakti Mandir is an important community hub and the primary touchpoint for anyone seeking information about local Chhath gatherings. In the weeks before November 15, the mandir community will have information about the riverside arghya location and timings for 2026.

Gurdwara Sachkhand Isher Darbar

The Gurdwara Sachkhand Isher Darbar, located at Via Industriale 16, 25126 Brescia (telephone: +39 380 792 4247), is a major Sikh institution serving Brescia's Punjabi Sikh community. The gurdwara offers daily prayers, kirtan, and langar (the community kitchen that feeds everyone who comes, free of charge, regardless of faith or background). While Chhath Puja is primarily observed by Hindu communities from Bihar and eastern India, the gurdwaras of Brescia are important anchors for the broader South Asian community — and langar at the gurdwara is open to all. Sachkhand Isher Darbar is among the most active and well-known South Asian religious institutions in the city.

Gurdwara Baba Budha Ji Sikh Centre

The Gurdwara Baba Budha Ji Sikh Centre, located in Castenedolo, Brescia, is another established Sikh institution in the province. Named after Baba Budha Ji, the revered early Sikh scholar and caretaker of the Harmandir Sahib, the gurdwara serves the Sikh community of Castenedolo and the surrounding areas. It is a spiritual and community gathering point, particularly during the autumn festival season that encompasses Diwali, Bandi Chhor Divas, and the wider cycle of South Asian festivities.

Gurdwara Singh Sabha Flero

The Gurdwara Singh Sabha Flero, at Via P. Neruda 48/50/52, 25020 Flero BS (telephone: +39 329 726 4869), is one of the largest and most significant Sikh congregations in all of northern Italy. Established to serve the roughly 5,000 Sikhs living in the Brescia area, the gurdwara holds regular prayer sessions, kirtan, and community gatherings. During the autumn festival season, Gurdwara Singh Sabha Flero is a busy and welcoming space for the South Asian community of all backgrounds.

Finding the Chhath Arghya Location

The most spiritually moving aspect of Chhath Puja is the open-air arghya ceremony at the water's edge. In Brescia, Chhath participants typically gather at the banks of the Mella or Chiese rivers, or at accessible lake shores, for the sunset and sunrise offerings on November 15 and 16. The specific location each year is coordinated among the community and announced through:

• Local South Asian WhatsApp and Telegram groups
• The Facebook page of Maha Shiv Shakti Mandir Brescia (facebook.com/mahashivshaktimandirbrescia)
• Word of mouth through the networks of the Bihari and eastern Indian community in Brescia

If you are new to Brescia or to the local community, visiting Maha Shiv Shakti Mandir in the weeks before November 15 is the most reliable way to find out where the gathering will be held. You can also reach out through the gurdwara at Via Industriale 16 — the South Asian community networks across Brescia are closely connected.

About Chhath and Brescia's South Asian Community

Brescia is home to one of Italy's largest concentrations of South Asians, with a community that has grown substantially since the 1990s and is now deeply woven into the city's economic and social fabric. Sikhs from Punjab form a significant part of this community, served by the several gurdwaras described above. Alongside them is a large community of Hindus from Bihar, eastern Uttar Pradesh, and Nepal, for whom Chhath Puja is the year's most important festival — the one that most powerfully connects them to home, to family still in India, and to the seasonal rhythms of the Bihari calendar.

Chhath's rituals — standing barefoot in cold water, facing the sun, holding offerings made from simple ingredients by one's own hands — require no priest, no elaborate ceremony, and no elaborate expenditure. The simplicity and the intensity of personal devotion are precisely what make it so meaningful to people far from the Ganga. Wherever there is a river and a Bihari community, Chhath finds a home.

Join the community at the water's edge on Sunday, 15 November 2026, and witness one of the most beautiful festival traditions of the Indian diaspora in Europe.