Nuakhai Festival

Tags: State News

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 1 September greeted the nation on the occasion of Nuakhai, a harvest festival. 

IMPORTANT FACTS -

• Nuakhai Zuhar is an agricultural festival, also known as Nuakhai Parab or Nuakhai Bhetghat.

• It is celebrated in parts of Odisha and Chhattisgarh on the next day of Ganesh Chaturthi.

• It is celebrated to welcome the new crop of the season.

• Nuakhai is a combination of two words which denote eating new rice as 'Nua' means new and 'Khai' means food.

• It is celebrated on the Panchami Tithi (fifth day) of the lunar fortnight of the month of Bhadrapada (August-September), the day after the Ganesh Chaturthi festival.

• On this occasion, farmers offer the first produce from their land to the famous 'Goddess Mata' Devi Samleswari of Sambalpur district of Odisha.

• Sambalpuri dances like Rasarkeli and Dalkhai can be seen in this festival.