he Bihar Jharkhand Association of North America (BJANA) celebrated Chaath puja at Thompson Park, Monroe , New Jersey.

Chhath Puja is one of the most auspicious festival in Bihar, Jharkhand and Eastern UP. Normally around 25-30 vrati performs puja together at BJANA but due to COVID-19 and safety concern 5 vratis have performed together and others have performed at their home. This year Neetu Prasad, Minal Govil, Sanchita Tiwari, Pratika Prakash and Sushma Singh have performed puja at the Ghatt.

BJANA has started organizing community wide chhath puja 4 years back and now this became signature event of BJANA.
President of BJANA said we are very fortunate that we have a team who performed all the services without any if and but they all come together and deliver the best performance .

Due to COVID-19 spread, itâ€™s a very difficult time of the year and BAJAN community was initially apprehend to celebrate this event in a traditional manner but entire community came together and form this idea to celebrate mahaparva event with greater safety measure and social distancing.

Entire BJANA executive committee devoted their days and nights for couple of weeks to plan Chhath puja and executed successfully. There was drive through araghy arrangement and prasad distribution was made to get the blessing of god Sun. The entire event was telecasted in Zoom and Facebook live which was only possible with BJANA executive committee member and media telecast expert Pranit Singh and Sudhakar Raj.

Many members of the community observed a three-day fast and puja which brought about 500 members of the community together and hundreds of community members watched entire puja live.

The event was attended by Consul General of India , New York -. Mr. Randhir Jaiswal and Deputy Consul General Shatrughna Sinha with their families. Mr. Jaiswal said that it is great to see the love and affection for mother land . This is one of the auspicious festival.FIA past president Alok Kumar mentioned that we feel that this event brings community too close. BJANA president Dr. Avinash Gupta acknowledge the team work of executive team and chhath volunteers. Special thanks to Prabish Chaurasia, who devoted all his time for making Prasad for all the attendee of the event.

Past president Shashi Sinha Thanks to my BJANA family here in New Jersey for celebrating Chhath pooja with this energy and Covid compliance organization. This reminds me of our Chhath celebration back home and makes me sing â€œkaanch hi baans ke bahangiya, bahangi lachkat jaye hoyi hi balam ji kahariya, bahangi ghat pahuchaye baat je puchhe la batohiya, bahangi kekra ke jayi tu to aanhar haw re batohiya, bahangi chat mayia ke jaye kaanch hi baans ke bahangiya, bahangi lachkat jayeâ€

Again thanks to all for participation and devotion.

Past president Vinay Singh BJANA said Volunteers made â€˜Thekuaâ€™prasad in large quantities so that no visitors leave without the mahaprasad.Vratis observing the 36 hours fast blessed all visitors after offering the morning Aragh to the rising sun.All residents of New Jersey from Bihar -Jharkhand and eastern UP origin got to enjoy the event once again . Pranit Singh join secretary said Chhath brings back such favorite memories. Thanks to BJANA and all the Vratis we get to experience it right here in America. This is one festival that brings the community so close and makes us forget that we are so far away from home.

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The Bihar Jharkhand Association of North America (BJANA) celebrated Chaath puja in New Jersey.