Celebrating Mithuna Sankranti 2024: A Joyous Festival of Odisha - As Mithuna Sankranti approaches in 2024, devotees are gearing up for a four-day festival filled with joy and traditions. This festival marks the arrival of the monsoon rains, celebrated with great enthusiasm across Odisha. Unmarried girls adorn themselves with ornaments, while married women take a break from household chores to enjoy indoor games.
Rituals and Traditions
On Mithuna Sankranti, which coincides with Raja Parba in Odisha, people worship Lord Vishnu and goddess Earth. Traditional attire is worn, and special puja is dedicated to the grinding stone, symbolizing Mother Earth. The stone is decorated with flowers and vermilion. Young girls, akin to the Earth preparing for the rains, also get ready for marriage and offer prayers to the Almighty.
Another popular ritual during Raja Parba is tying swings on banyan tree branches, where girls enjoy swinging and singing on various swing sets like ram doli, dandi doli, and chakri doli. It is considered auspicious to donate clothes to the needy on this day.
Like other Sankranti festivals, it is customary to pay homage to ancestors and visit temples on riverbanks.
Food Traditions
A special delicacy, Poda-pitha, is prepared in Odisha during Raja Parba and Mithuna Sankranti. It is made with jaggery, coconut, camphor, molasses, butter, and rice powder. According to rituals, rice grains are to be avoided on this day.
Important Timings for Mithuna Sankranti 2024
Significance of Mithuna Sankranti
During Mithuna Sankranti, people sing the raja gita, a popular folk song, while barefoot men and women welcome the rain with dancing and singing. Hindus fast on this day to please the Sun God and ensure peaceful and happy months ahead. The temple of Lord Jagannath in Odisha is beautifully adorned, and devotees flock in large numbers to worship Lord Jagannath and his consort, Bhudevi (Goddess Earth).
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