Nuakhai Festival:
The Prime Minister of India extended greetings to people on the auspicious occasion of Nuakhai.
- Nuakhai Festival is a festival of Western Odisha and adjoining areas of Simdega in Jharkhand.
- The word nua means new and khai means food.
- It is an agricultural festival which is observed to welcome the new rice of the season.
- It is observed on the fifth day of the lunar fortnight of the month of Bhadrapada or Bhaadra (August–September).
- Nuakhai is understood to have nine colours and as a consequence nine sets of rituals are followed as a prelude to the actual day of celebration.
- People offer the newly harvested crop called Nabanha to their respective presiding deities.
- After offering the Nabanha, people relish different types of delicacies prepared from the newly harvested crop.
- The Nuakhai Juhar is a major ritual of the festival.
