City Pulse

People in western Odisha celebrated Nuakhai festival on Saturday, The festival marks eating newly harvested rice, with religious fervour and gaiety.

Essentially an agrarian event, ‘Nuakhai’ has since taken the shape of a mass festival in the region when the new paddy crop is offered to the mother deity to seek blessings for a bumper harvest.

On this day, people offer ‘Nabanna’ (new rice) out of newly harvested paddy crop to the deity amidst ‘Hulahuli’ (swaying of tongue generating a lilting sound by womenfolk), beating drums, cymbals and sounds of conch shells.

After eating ‘Navanna’ bhog (offerings), people seek the blessings of the deity and then do so from elders in the family and locality which is called ‘Nuakhai Juhar’ in local parlance, a significant part of the festival. People also exchange greetings which is called ‘Nuakhai Bhetghat’.