India- a country known for its diversity, where differences in culture can be seen every 8 kilometers. It is a nation where people from different culture live harmoniously with each other. People across India celebrate various festivals but the beliefs, values and etiquette are almost similar in every culture. Today we will be discussing one of them, that is Nuakhai festival of Odisha.
Nuakhai is a harvest festival, observed by the people of Western Odisha. ‘Nua’ means new and ‘Khai’ means to eat. This festival marks the first consumption of the harvested crops. This is celebrated to welcome the new harvest and to thank God for blessing the people with enough food and good health.
This festival is celebrated on the Bhadraba Suklapakhya Panchmi tithi which is the day following Ganesh Chaturthi. This is celebrated to make the young generation know the importance of agriculture and farmers in our society and to always respect the food on their plates.
The newly harvested grains are called ‘Nabanna’, they are worshipped along with mythological god Laxmi on this day. The time at which the ‘nabanna’ would be first consumed is called ‘Lagan’ and is fixed according to the horoscope of the deity of Sambalpur district of Odisha- termed by people as Maa Samleswari.
This is a one-day festival but the people start the preparation at least two weeks before the main day. Houses and surroundings are cleaned, new clothes and accessories are bought, new crops are harvested and elders invite the younger ones to their homes for Nuakhai. All the family members gather together, dressed in new clothes to have the ‘nabanna’ for the first time, which is served to them by the head of the family. After that all the younger ones in the family and community touch the feet of the elders and say “Nuakhai Juhar” to take their blessings for happiness and prosperity in life. Special food items like Arisa pitha, kheer, Kakra pitha, Manda pitha, Ambila, makhan saag, etc are cooked and everyone in the family eats together on this day. In the evening the cultural functions known as “Nudkhai Bhetghat” are organized by various communities where people sing and dance on the folk songs and celebrate their joy.
Nuakhai is also known as “Gana Parab” which means festival of the people. People residing in any part of the country return to their native places for celebrating this festival with their families. This festival improves social bonding and accelerate family ties.
In this Era, where due to the influence of western culture our Indian traditions and values are somewhere lost, festivals like Nuakhai have kept the essence of Indian family culture alive. Nuakhai demonstrates the kind of unity and bonding we have in our culture. This day acts as a healing time that restores deep relationships with Nature, humans and the Universe. The significance of this festival is that it brings us all together by creating a healthy environment and healthy us, people leave behind their grudges, unresolved issues and grievances and come together to start afresh and this is what our Indian culture is all about.