About Baliyatra Festival:
- It is celebrated annually in Cuttack, Odisha.
- The term Bali Jatra literally means ‘Voyage to Bali’.
- It is celebrated every year on Kartika Purnima that marks the day that the seafaring traders departed for the Indonesian islands.
- Historical Significance of Baliyatra:
- It is organised every year to commemorate the 2,000-year-old maritime and cultural links between ancient Kalinga (today’s Odisha) and Bali and other South and Southeast Asian regions like Java, Sumatra, Borneo, Burma (Myanmar) and Ceylon (Sri Lanka).
- Celebration of Baliyatra Festival
- The celebration features grand fairs, elaborate rides, food and dance.
- Indian women perform ‘Boita Bandana’, they make boats of paper or banana leaf (sholapith) with lighted lamps inside and float them down the Mahanadi as a part of the celebrations.
- The Bali Jatra celebrates the ingenuity and skill of those expert sailors who made Kalinga, one of the most prosperous empires of its time.
