Mother Earth is the biggest icon of femininity

Raja Festival is a unique festival of womanhood celebrated in my place that falls in mid June every year. It's a three day long special festival to celebrate femininity and these three days are full of joyous festivity for unmarried girls following some niche customs spending vivid and enjoyable times. It's believed that Mother Earth ( Goddess Bhudevi) menstruates at this time (the word Raja is derived from a Sanskrit word 'Rajas' which means menstruation) and must be given full rest from any sort of agricultural activities( e.g. digging, ploughing etc) so that she becomes more fertile after this. Women are compared in a similar way to Goddess Bhudevi, getting special privilege in this festival. they should not work for 4 days and take rest and only enjoy spending happiest moments during these days. Menstruation is considered as a sign of fertility, and therefore, it celebrates femininity and women's ability to give birth to another life.

A special pan cake Poda Pitha is made during this festival about which I posted earlier in this post. And the swings made on this festival, are the biggest enjoyment for these girls. Ever saw a bamboo swing ? Believe me, they are super fast - one should have a strong heart to sit on them.

This year, I was at my native place, and got a chance to see the celebration happening on the Barunei Hill, which is near to my house. The celebration was stopped in last two years because of Covid and that was the reason, this year, it attracted huge crowds.

But knowing that did not discourage my mother and she wanted to see it, so I took her taking the company of a close friend, who also brought his son.

There is a temple on the hill top, where the twin goddesses Barunei and Karunei are worshiped and it has a special attraction - they make a very tasty pitha (cake) every day. Since we have gone there many times, we preferred not to go there because of the large crowd and instead enjoyed the cultural program for some time.

See the elderly lady coming here ? These are the joyous atmosphere for rural people enjoying their time celebrating togetherness. Unfortunately, the attachment is fading away in city lives. And remember this ?

Brings back memories of our childhood times. My friend's son made us feel that back, crying to sit on this. There were a large number of stalls placed but, I felt the space was not enough to accommodate the large crowd this year. My mother wanted to buy some utensils that are hand made and we had to search for them. Thankfully, they were sitting outside, while we were coming back, helping us to not go to the crowded area full of dust (as she has asthma - see, she still wants to go:)).

There were couple of vendors making it competitive ( good for us), but her expert eyes found the perfect one. Knowing that, she picked the best one, the vendor did not want to reduce anything on price, but after several discussions, she made the deal - something worth learning :)

And then back to home with all the memories....

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