All the Odia medium schools of the town here and also all over the district reopened on Tuesday after the X-mass holiday. But the attendance in the classes was very thin.
There are also many schools in the town where not a single student turned up after the completion of the holiday.
Reason: The day of reopening of schools and the most popular festival ‘Puspunei’ (Pausa Purnima or full moon day in the Odia month of Pausa) coincided on the day.
Since ‘Puspunei’ is a local festival and the people of western Odisha celebrate it with gaiety and grandeur amidst delicious foods and non-vegetarian dishes in particular, most of the students preferred to stay at home and enjoy food with family to coming to school.
“Our school has eight classes. But only five students have come today because of the Puspunei festival. Hence, we have to sit idle for the whole day,” said the headmistress of a school. She further said that Puspunei was a local holiday earlier. Even some other districts of western Odisha have Puspunei as a holiday. But the Government has abolished it in Sambalpur and many other parts since last few years. “But students normally don’t come on this day to school because their parents don’t allow them,” she added. However, teachers were seen very much present in the schools.