Bhubaneswar: Raja, the festival that celebrates womanhood is back. Last year’s celebrations were grand, considering that the festival took place in all its glory after two years of COVID.
There has been a lot of conversation on menstruation, period leave, women’s rights and the worldview of women but Raja does not fall in the ambit of any of these, for it is a unique festival to celebrate menstruation and female productivity. Raja can be termed as the short form of the word Rajaswala, which means a menstruating woman.
According to belief, mother earth menstruates just like women do and menstruation symbolises fertility and creativity. Another belief is that the earth is most fertile during this period and it is the best time for the germination of seeds. So, in that sense, Raja also symbolises the sowing season.
Raja is celebrated year after year but custom and tradition have not translated into ‘talk of periods’. Many families have not taken the pain to explain to their girls or even their boys, the significance of the festival and concentrated more on the festivities. Most young girls just associate it with gifts, good food and merry-making and young boys just know it as something women indulge in.
Women who are more vocal about their views feel that Raja has no relevance in the absence of an open talk about periods, which is missing. There is no point in discussing the cultural aspect if we can’t relate it to daily life. How can you talk about normalising periods when even in this day and age, women are expected to conceal sanitary napkins in black polythene bags? And the boys and men in the family still don’t talk about periods with their wives, daughters and sisters?” they ask.
They just perceive it as a concealed method of reinforcing patriarchy in the garb of culture and tradition. Rukmini Panda, Program Officer, Gender Justice at Oxfam India had rightly written in a 2020 article. “The festival, while can be credited with celebrating menstruating women/earth, it in its own subtle way reinforced and glorified the social norm of not allowing menstruating women/girls to participate in household chores especially entering the kitchen.
“The society with its very strong, deep-rooted patriarchal foundations has been obsessed with the virginity of girls. We as a society have never supported our girls to manage menstruation with dignity and take pride in the creativity it symbolises. It is time we break this taboo and celebrate Raja festival in its true spirit by accepting periods as a normal biological process and not discriminating against girls/women for having them,” she added.
