Our culture, festival, and tradition always reflect in our growth and identity. In Odia’s calendar, we have thirteen festivals. Few are very grandly celebrating in the community and few are within the family.

Kartika maasa, the holiest month of our Odia calendar. We believe that this month all the holy work will pay off in terms of divine, purity, and angelic way in our life. That is why we call this a "Dharama Maasa". So this month celebrates with Arnna dana, dharma, punya karma, seva etc... It says that Odian leaves the non-vegetarian food in this month even though they are core non-vegetarian by calculation. Of course, there is some scientific reason behind it for not having non-vegetarian food in this particular month. Above all the deed, the last 5 days are very special. We call it "Panchuka".

On the days of panchuka, we do some specific divine work for ourselves to purify our mind and soul. Everyday we take an early shower, do Tulsi maa puja in the evening, draw muruja( rangoli) in five colours at home, special Habisa dalma ( no tempering, no masala, no haladi) with specific vegetables. While taking the Satwik Bhojan on a green Banana leaf that glance itself gives purity and a divine feel.

Till now I am narrating the mythology of Kartika maasa, but it has history of Kartika Purnima as well.

Utkal(ancient name of Odisha) was a rich business state, the business personnel “Sadhabas” used to travel to different southeast Asia countries like Sri Lanka, Java, Sumatra, Bali to do trade and business for a long time by sea route. They used the sea route of Bay of Bengal.

It believes that Kartika Purnima is an auspicious day to start the voyage, again it has a reason behind it. As per the Meteorological department, the climate is more supportive for the sea voyage after the month of Kartika maasa( tentatively it is November). Before they start the journey, they do Boyeeta puja/Bandana(worship of boat). So believe in that particular story, we celebrate Kartika Purnima with Boyeeta Bhasaa. The boat is made of colourful paper, banana bark(kadali patua) and styrofoam. Those are decorated with colourful papers, flowers, betel leaf(paana), nut(gua) and lamps(deepa). A ritual starts near the bank of river, pond and any water body before the sunrise with beautiful local song…….

We miss the original charm of the festival as we are busy in our modern life. Still, we are attached to our rich culture, rituals, and festivals. We  celebrate the seven days Balijatra festival on the bank of Mahanadi river and it is considered one of  the biggest Asian open trade fair till date.

Here we are refreshing our childhood by celebrating Kartika Purnima in Singapore in a traditional way and trying to continue the legacy with our children.

 

Happy Kartika Purnima