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

The Nuakhai Lagna was finalised at a meeting of the priests and Trust Board members of Samaleswari temple in Sambalpur, sources said.

Goddess Samaleswari, the presiding deity of Sambalpur, would be offered Nabanna (season’s first harvest) between 10.27 am and 10.42 am on the occasion of Nuakhai on September 20, said a priest of the shrine.

The people of western Odisha can eat the newly-harvested rice soon after the Nabanna is offered to Goddess Samaleswari, he added.

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.