Jhulan Yatra or Swing Festival is the religious festival of Hindus dedicated to Lord Krishna and Radha. It is observed in the month of August. And this year, this festival is being started from today. Kolkata has lost many of its traditions but still, in some houses at central Kolkata, it is observed very enthusiustically.
The house at 63, Dhiren Dhar Sarani is one of them. The house is called 'Srimanta Villa'. In this house, Jhulan Yatra is being observed gorgeously (this year it is being observed from 22-26 August). Jhulan utsav of this house is about 80 years old. Srimanta Pandit was the founder of this 'Srimanta Villa'. His son Chandan Pandit was so enthusiast about this festival that he decorated 'Jhulan' with dolls on their outside sitting place (রক) alongwith his friends. It was the year 1935. After three years, he started a new item - showed sunrise, sunset, moonrise and position of various stars and planets at night projecting on screen, run by electric machine. This venture became so popular on the first year that people used to call the Jhulan festival of their house as "Chand Surya বাড়ির ঝুলন". They still show the item with the same machine during Jhulan Yatra. People comes even from far to witness the unique Jhulan of Srimanta Villa. Additional attraction of this Jhulan is puppet play of an event of either Ramayana or Mahabharata.
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