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Poush Parbon losing its charm

At Nabanna Utsav, newly prepared delicacies are first offered to goddess Laxmi, which marks the celebrations on Makar Sankranti.

Poush Parbon losing its charm

Visuals from the festival (Photo:SNS)

The traditional Poush Parbon or Nabanna Utsav brings happy tidings to all. Celebrating newly-harvested paddy and crops, the various forms of delicacies prepared from flour of the newly harvested rice with date plum jaggery adds flavours to it.

At Nabanna Utsav, newly prepared delicacies are first offered to goddess Laxmi, which marks the celebrations on Makar Sankranti. However, the traditional charm of Nabanna Utsav is gradually losing its colour since the present generation of the farmer families are least interested to carry on with the tradition.

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The educated youth from these farmers are more inclined towards urbanization and switching to jobs. The Serampore Municipality, in a joint effort with Piyali Pathak, an elocutionist and performing artist observed Pithe Puli Utsav at serampore Rajbari grounds. Piyali said, “The rich traditional culture of Pithe Puli needs to be carried forward by the present generation.

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The traditional art and culture of a state or area keeps up the bondage of love and brotherhood among all people, irrespective of religion, caste and creed. We need to preserve our rich culture.” Shukla Sarkar from Janai, a housewife, recollects the good old days of the extended family or joint family system, she said, “With the commence of Poush or Makar Sankranti, the entire family would get involved in the preparation of pithe (a type of rice cake).

The essence and flavour of nolen gur date palm jaggery) filled the entire building, the female members of the family kept themselves busy with scraping out of coconuts, rice flour was attended with much care to maintain its purity and its sweet flavour.”

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