Veer Badya Ghoomara, Tiger Dance, Samar Kala and Santali Dance became the special attractions.
Padmapur – Cultural programs are being organized for five days at the Lok Mahotsav stage organized by the local Town Club. This festival is organized to bring together artists and bring the culture of Bodasambar region, Odisha and various parts of India to the world court. The Padmapur Lok Mahotsav has been organized by the Town Club for the past four years, emphasizing local folk culture, folk dance, songs, and traditional music, dance and music that are on the verge of extinction. This time, for the fifth time, the festival is being organized by the Town Club for five days. Meanwhile, the festival began with a cultural procession organized on Tuesday.
Around 18 local cultural groups, including traditional gana baja, ghoodka, etc., along with Santali dance from Kinajhar, Bagh dance from Berhampur, Veer Badya Ghoomura from Dharmagarh, Samar Kala from Puri and folk dance traditions from outside states like Bilashpur of Chhattisgarh also took part in this procession. A total of more than 25 groups and more than 400 artists participated in this procession. On the other hand, various departments and schools displayed various public awareness and national valor, such as forest protection, cyber awareness, Swachh Bharat, Shriram Janmabhoomi, traditional Jog Kala, and many beautiful jhankis showing the science skills of traditional Jog Kala. This procession, which started from the local Ashoka ground and lit the torch of unity with the worship, has also been seen in the entire city, especially the ancient tradition of Jhankar of Bodasambar.
In the history of ancient Bodasambar, there were rural or remote worshipers of different communities in different parts, who were known as Jhankars. However, as this tradition is about to be lost over time, it is being discussed that the fourth Padmapur Lok Mahotsav will honor the current generation representative in charge of Jhankar in the festival and give him a place in the procession. While it is being discussed that it is a high-value effort to organize the festival to preserve tradition and culture, the committee said that the festival is being organized to preserve tradition and culture. Meanwhile, a trade fair is also held for 15 days, where various types of household items, food items, daily used items, clothes, ornaments, etc. from different states are sold. Along with this, people are also enjoying the Meena Bazaar.
