NUAKHAI | IAS GYAN

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Context: The Prime Minister has greeted the nation on the auspicious occasion of Nuakhai.

Details:

Nuakhai Juhar is an agricultural festival, also called Nuakhai Parab or Nuakahi Bhetghat.
It is celebrated to welcome the new crop of the season.
Nuakhai is a combination of two words that signifies eating of new rice as ‘nua’ means new and ‘khai’ means eat.
This is the festival of Western Odisha, southern Chhattisgarh and adjoining areas of Simdega (Jharkhand).
Its coastal counterpart is Nabanna, observed in Coastal Odisha.
It is observed on panchami tithi (the fifth day) of the lunar fortnight of the month of Bhadrapada (August–September), the day after the Ganesh Chaturthi festival.
Farmers offer the first produce from their lands to Goddess Samaleswari, the famous ‘Mother Goddess’ of Sambalpur district of Odisha.
Sambalpuri dance forms like Rasarkeli and Dalkhai can be witnessed.
Nuakhai festival traces its origin to the Vedic period in Panchyajna.