Raja: An Odia Festival to Celebrate Feminity & Mother Earth’s Womanhood

Raja is the unique festival of Odisha when all Odia households celebrate feminity and Mother Earth’s womanhood. This festival marks the onset of monsoons, which in a way triggers the fertility of the soil for the upcoming agricultural season.

Added to it Raja is also related to menstruation, which in a way is an effort of our ancestors to remove taboos related to periods. During this festival, Mother Earth drenched by the first rains on monsoon is compared with a woman who has attained puberty and is ready to give birth to progenies.

It is the festival, when Odia women get all attention and pamper. They wear new clothes and get beautifully decorated with traditional make-up and accessories. Varieties of Odia delicacies are prepared at home and women are not permitted to get involved in household chores.

Raja is a three-day festival. The first day is called Pahili Raja, and the second day on the day of Mithuna Sankranti, which is also known as Raja Sankranti marks the start of the Hindu month of Asadha. It is followed by the Basi Raja on the third day. The fourth day after the Raja festival is Basumati Gadhua, which symbolizes the end of the menstrual period of the Mother Earth.

During Raja festivities, every Odia woman is seen in colourful attires, bright red alta on the feet, kumkum on the forehead, and beautiful designs of mehndi on their palms.

Raja is incomplete without the traditional swing and rural games like Bagudi, Puchi, Thia Puchi, Bohu Chori, Kho Kho etc attached to it.  For generations, girls sing Raja folk songs while playing on the swings.

Every household emanates the aroma of delicacies such as poda pitha, arisa pitha, chakuli pitha, chandrakanti etc. Every family distributes these delicacies prepared at home among neighbours and relatives. Raja is also the time when girls relish the mouth-watering paan. With many varieties of Raja paan now available, vendors do brisk business in keeping up with heavy demand.