In Odisha, the Annual Raja Festival is being celebrated with traditional gaiety and fervour. The three days' festival beginning today is celebrated to mark the symbolic menstruation of Mother Earth. On the occasion, people from all walks of life and from villages to the cities, observe merry-making by wearing new dresses, enjoying swinging and singing and of course, relishing a wide variety of local delicacies.<br />''<br />''A report<br />''<br />''Come to Odisha and you will find people, especially girls and women flocking around the makeshift swings in colourful dresses, waiting for their turn to sway into a world of pleasure. These make-shift swings, both inside the house and out beyond, dot every nook and cranny of the state, making it a mass festival. The other accompanying attractions of the three days' event are the traditional delicacies like Pitha and Pan and hinterland games like Tas and Kabbadi.<br />''<br />''After a two years gap, this year people have got a chance to celebrate Raja, when the pandemic is fairly down. While people are agog with joy for the Raja celebration, devotees of Lord Jagannath are elated to have the blessings of the Trinity at the Snana Bedi inside the temple premises in the holy city of Puri. Named as Snana Yatra, the festive occasion marks one of the very important rituals of the Sri Jagannath Temple, just a few days before the famous Rath Yatra. On the occasion, the deities are taken out in a ceremonial procession to the Snana Mandap or the bathing altar where they are bathed in 108 pots of holy water. Even as the rituals are now being live telecast by almost all the local channels, devotees are lined up to have a soulful glimpse of their dearest deities.