Pura Uansa or Saptapuri Amavasya, a unique festival of Western Odisha, watch

Subarnapur: Pura Uansa or Saptapuri Amavasya will be observed across western Odisha on September 14, 2023. This is a festival in which children play an active part. This unique festival will be observed in the towns and even in the rural pockets in the western Odisha districts.

Pura Uansa or Saptapuri Amavasya is a unique festival in which little girl children play with clay pots, while baby boys pull clay and wooden horses and elephants. The aim is about making girls to aware about housekeeping while the boys symbolically get acquainted with battle tricks.

One may consider such practices might be irrelevant to the present time. Yet, this unique festival is being observed since last many years.

To fetch the clay toys etc. the little girls and boys approach their father to somehow convince them to purchase more and more such toys.

The market or haat to sell the items to be used during the Pura Uansa festival, get open a few days ahead of the festival. In Subarnapur district such markets have already opened. The traders who sell these items await this festival anxiously with a hope to earn handsome profit.

Clay pots (Kundhi), clay small plates (kanchi), and elephant, horses made of clay are sold in the Pura Uansa haat. Also, wooden elephants, horses etc. are also sold. Besides the toys, the Pura Uansa haat also deals in a few food items like gram, flattened rice etc. Twelve varieties of food items are available in this market for Pura Uansa.

Such a market has been opened in Sonepur, the district head quarter of Subarnapur district. Potters, Maharnas and traders prepare for this festival a month before. Asked about the profit, a businessman at the haat of Sonepur said that he has been earning good for the last few days after selling items for the Pura Uansa.

This is festival in which mainly children celebrate while their parents help them to fetch the items using which they play on the Pura Uansa day before hand. This is falling on 14^th September this year.

Ahead of the festival day, crowd has been witnessed in the market to buy items. The children are joyfully awaiting for the day.