Bhubaneswar: The Lagna (propitious moment) for the celebration of this year’s Nuakhai festival in Western Odisha was finalised today.

The Nuakhai Lagna was finalised at a meeting of the priests and members of ‘Brahmamandap Pandit Mahasabha' of Samaleswari temple in Odisha’s Sambalpur city today.

Goddess Samaleswari, the presiding deity of Sambalpur, would be offered Nabanna (season’s first harvest) between 10.33 am and 10.55 am on the occasion of Nuakhai on August 28.

The people of all Western Odisha districts can offer the Nabanna to the presiding deities of their localities after 10.55 am. They can also eat the newly-harvested rice soon after the Nabanna is offered to Goddess Samaleswari.

The people of several districts in western Odisha celebrate Nuakhai, an agrarian festival, with fervour on the fifth day of lunar fortnight of the Hindu month of Bhadrab.