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Bali Jatra or Yatra
 Location : Koraput, Orissa
Famous
As :
Tribal Festivity
Day & Month According To Lunar Calendar : Kartika Purnima or Kartik Purnima (November - December)
Other Important Places
:
Cuttack, Paradeep, Konark & Balugaon (Chilika)
Baliyatra
(November-December)
To commemorate the glorious past of commercial voyages to the islands of Bali, Java and Sumatra by Orissan Trader, a big fair called 'Bali Yatra' is held on Mahanadi river bank at Cuttack on the fullmoon day of Kartik.
Beginning of A Celebration
The starting of the festival begins with 'Nuakhia' (first eating) feast on which new rice is eaten. The festival takes the name for planting of a variety of grains in the wet sand (Bali) brought from a nearby stream and is placed on a structure called 'Bali Jatra' or sand house.
This is an occasion for a number of other celebrations too. Men and women put on fancy dresses and rejoice with drinking, feasting, dancing and singing. In some areas a swing is set up with its seat studded with sharp nails and on this a 'Bejju' (witch doctor) is made to swing. Goats, fowls and pigeons are sacrificed. The Bejju then walks on the bed of live charcoal. He dances in trance for all the three days with intermittent rest, during which he prophesize both good and evil portends to grant boons to the people.
Peculiarly, the ritual of swinging on a seat of nails and fire walking is observed by the low-caste Hindus of the coastal areas during the Pana Sankranti festival. It may be that the tribal people have adopted the ritual from the Hindus; as such rituals are not in the tradition of ethnic culture.
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