Bhubaneswar : Another unique festival in Odisha, Raj Utsav is being celebrated on a grand scale in which all unmarried girls and women in their first year of marriage wear new clothes and play doli (swing), boys play cards and bagudi game and all family members enjoy specially baked cakes called pitha in districts. ‘Raj doli katmat, mo bhai mundre suna mukut’ is a popular song sung by girls while swinging during the festival.
Raja in Odia means menstruation in Hindi. This means that this festival is celebrated to mark the menstruation of Mother Earth. Thus girls celebrate this festival for three days. It is also said that sowing of seeds starts right after Raja. This is an agricultural feThe Raj festival is celebrated for three days. While the first day is called Pahili Raj, the next two days are celebrated as ‘Raj Sankranti’ and ‘Debi Snan’. While the festival is most religiously observed in rural areas, special events are planned to celebrate the festival in the capital city Bhubaneswar and the cultural cities of Cuttack and Berhampur.
Apart from enjoying ‘poda pitha’ and other cakes, people, regardless of age, also enjoy chewing ‘raj paan’ (betel nut), of which there are different types. On the occasion of the three-day festival, girls apply mehndi and alta and wear colorful bangles besides new clothes. Girls do not walk barefoot on these three festival days. Nowadays Odia people living outside the state are also celebrating the festival in the community.
