Baliyatra Festival

Baliyatra Festival Latest News

Recently, the President of India extended greetings on the occasion of the historic ‘Baliyatra’ festival and ‘Boita Bandana’ to all the countrymen.

About Baliyatra Festival

• It is celebrated annually in Cuttack, Odisha.
• The term Bali Jatra literally means ‘Voyage to Bali’.
• It is celebrated every year on Kartika Purnima that marks the day that the seafaring traders departed for the Indonesian islands.

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Historical Significance of Baliyatra Festival

• It is organised every year to commemorate the 2,000-year-old maritime and cultural links between ancient Kalinga (today’s Odisha) and Bali and other South and Southeast Asian regions like Java, Sumatra, Borneo, Burma (Myanmar) and Ceylon (Sri Lanka).

Celebration of Baliyatra Festival

• The celebration features grand fairs, elaborate rides, food and dance.
• Indian women perform ‘Boita Bandana’, they make boats of paper or banana leaf (sholapith) with lighted lamps inside and float them down the Mahanadi as a part of the celebrations.
• The Bali Jatra celebrates the ingenuity and skill of those expert sailors who made Kalinga, one of the most prosperous empires of its time.

Source: News On Air