Boita Bandana Utsav celebrations at Neknampur Lake
Hyderabad: The Neknampur Lake in the vicinity of Manikonda was full of colours and celebrations on the occasion of Boita Bandana Utsav celebrated by the Odia community in Hyderabad on the day of Karthika Pournami.
Having gathered at around 5 am today, a community of 50 families remembered their past generation of traders through the festival. On the day, small boats made of banana stem with a small diya are floated on the water as a remembrance to the Odia traders.
An idol of Lord Jagannath was also placed and colourful rangolis were drawn at the lake side.
“It was a very nice celebration. People were also quite disciplined and the festivities were done peacefully. Also, the premises were cleaned soon after the celebrations were over. The public, along with the municipal workers, made sure the place was tidied again. These kinds of festivities should happen. Hyderabad is home to several people from other States as well. Such festivals give an opportunity for people to unite, learn and celebrate different cultures,” shares K Phalgun Kumar, Commissioner, Manikonda.
The festivities were organised with the help of Madhulika Choudhary of Dhruvansh NGO.
History of Boita Bandana Utsav
“Back in the time, Odia traders would go during this time to sell their goods in islands like Java, Borneo and Bali in Indonesia and Sumatra in Malaysia. They used to stay in these foreign lands for months together facilitating social and cultural exchange. So, these Odia traders used to start their voyage on the day of Karthika Pournima and their wives used to bid them farewell by worshiping them and the ships. So, that is the significance of floating a banana stem boat with betel leaves, areca nut and rice along with a ghee diya on this day,” shares Jharana Das, who has settled in Hyderabad from the past six years. However, with time, the traditional banana stem was replaced with cardboard, paper, cloth and thermocol, shares Jharana.
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