Pakhala Dibasa - ପଖାଳ ଦିବସ

Admin March 18, 2019

Pakhala Dibasa, a day to welcome summer with the most favorite Odia food item Pakhala.

What is Pakhala??

Pakhala (Odia: ପଖାଳ) is an Odia term in Indian Food items. This term has some different names also according to the region. It consists of cooked rice washed or little fermented in water. The liquid part is known as toraṇi (Odia: ତୋରାଣୀ). This food is quite popular in Odisha, Assam, Bengal, Jharkhand, Chhatishgarh, Tamilnadu.

What is Pakhala Dibasa??

Pakhala is popular during summer days. February and March are the months of Spring season or Basanta Rutu. March is the welcoming month for the Summer. Northward equinox or March equinox changes its position for the spring in between 19th March to 21st March, so 20th March is the perfect day to celebrate Pakhala Dibasa. So, we Odia people decided to welcome summer officially on March 20, every year. From that day, we are celebrating this Pakhala Dibasa to welcome the Summer.

Why this day??

Though we people always eat Pakhala, but it's just the formality day like Valentine's Day. On this day, people do get together and arrange Pakhala for the Lunch. Some ordinary people to Government employees also join on this occasion.

What side items we would prefer with Pakhala??

To have Pakhala, we would prefer different side items and here is a small list from our food photography blog.

Roasted Tomato and Badi

Roasted Eggplant with onion chops and some green chilly.

Fried Aloo with Mustard.

Eggplant fry

Besan Vada of Pumpkin flower.

Fish curry of Fried Fish.

Some More Photos of Pakhala

Watch the Pakhala Dibasa VLOG by Gapu

This blog is written by Sangram Keshari Senapati. All the photographs are taken by him. If you wish to share these photos, then just share by giving him the credit.

Read his stories on shubhapallaba.in