BHUBANESWAR: An air of festivity pervaded the Capital City with beginning of Raja celebrations on Saturday.
While the age-old traditions of Raja have given way to new approaches with the festivities limited to lavish spending on new dresses and other purchases, many organisations made sincere efforts to keep the traditions alive by organising special programmes.
The Odisha Tourism Development Corporation (OTDC) organised Raja Mahotsav to celebrate the festival in some of its Pantha Nivas and Yatri Nivas properties across the State. The four-day Mahotsav, which was inaugurated on Saturday, is being held at Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Rourkela, Sambalpur, Chandipur, Barakul, Paradip and Konark. Besides Pahili Raja, Raja and Basi Raja, officials in OTDC decided to extend the celebration for one more day. As part of the Mahotsav, a food festival is being organised where authentic Odia delicacies will be served to visitors. The specialities are 'Poda Pitha' along with other sweetmeats like 'Manda', 'Kakara', 'Aarisha', Guda pithas, Kheer and Raja paan.
Besides OTDC, similar 'Pitha' festivals are also being organised by city-based hotels and malls.
Apart from savouring traditional sweetmeats, locals went on a shopping spree as almost all clothing and jewellery stores offered heavy discounts.
The city halls were also chock-a-block with people as the Odia film industry saw three big Raja releases - 'Gapa Helebi Sata' starring star couple Anubhav and Barsha, 'Super Michhua' starring Babushan and Jhilik and Arindam and Anisha starrer 'Love You Hamesha'.