Bhubaneswar, June 16 -- https://images.odishatv.in/uploadimage/library/16_9/16_9_0/recent_photo_1686388488.JPG
While much of the world continues to struggle with the stigma surrounding menstruation, Odisha stands as a cultural outlier, celebrating it with joy and pride through the Raja festival.
Observed every year in mid-June, Raja is not merely a celebration of seasons or customs; it is an unapologetic embrace of womanhood in all its natural cycles.
Rooted in the belief that Mother Earth undergoes her menstrual phase during these three days, Raja extends the same reverence to women. Girls and women are encouraged to rest, wear new clothes, adorn their feet with alta, and swing joyfully, symbolic of fertility, youth and vitality. In doi...