Culture
The population of Jatani consists mostly of Oriya speaking people. Others like Telugu, Marwari, Gujarati, Bengali, etc. are also present in good numbers. It is also the home of highest number of Anglo-Indian people in Orissa. A variety of communities live here because Jatani has been a very important railway station since the British rule. A major chunk of people living here are railway employees.
Jatani is famous for its celebration of the Ganesh Chaturthi festival. Jatani is very crowded during Ganesh Puja as people from nearby places visit in huge numbers for the occasion. People of Jatani maintain communal harmony. Eid ul-Fitr & Christmas Day are also celebrated with religious fervour.
Diwali and Holi are celebrated here with much fanfare. The firecracker shops in Jatani draw a large number of buyers from nearby places like Bhubaneswar, Khurda, Puri etc. reason being there are nearby villages which indulge in making crackers half a year like Padanpur. The success of these shops can be attributed to setting up once again makeshift shops during other festivals like Raksha Bandhan, New Year.
It's a mini India of its own but you can always find some glimpse of evaporating traditions here. Be it the Anglo-Indians celebrating Christmas in open or the Marwari's Garba in closely guarded community atmosphere.
Several week-long festivals for the goddess Bhagabati Devi are also celebrated mostly in Railway sareas esp. Locoline and Retang colony. On the last day, the procession is carried out in public, followed by a carnival depicting stories from Hindu mythologies like Ramayana, Mahabharath etc.
The town is spread across various Railways settlements akin colonies like Traffic colony, New colony, Accounts colony, Retang colony, Loco line surrounded by private townships like Nuagaun, Hata bazaar, Raja bazaar, Bali Chakka Sahi, Railway Market, Kudiary, Sitaram chhack, Thaana Chhack, Bacharapatna (chhack is the local equivalent for Cross, similarly bazaar is the local equivalent for Market).
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