Special days and festival- part 2

Pohela Boishakh

Bengali New Year, we also called Nobo borsho or Pohela Boishakh, is the first day of the Bengali calendar. It is a national holiday of Bangladesh. Also it is celebrated in west Bengal, Assam, Tripura. It connects all ethnic Bengalis, irrespective of religious and regional differences. It is celebrated either in 14 or 15 April and it depends on the use of the new amended or the old Bengali calendar respectively. In Bangladesh, it is celebrated on April 14 according to the official amended calendar designed by the Bangla Academy. In West Bengal and Assam it is a public (state) holiday and is publicly celebrated on April 15 every year.

 During reign of Akbar the celebration was started. The customer had to pay or clear all their dues on the last day of Choitro or last day of Bengali year. On the next day, or the first day of the New Year, landlords would welcome them with sweets. On this occasion there used to be fairs and other festivals. Gradually it becomes as part of domestic and social life, and turned into a day of celebration. The main event of the day was to open a halkhata or new book of accounts. In villages, towns and cities, traders and businessmen closed their old account books and opened new ones. They used to invite their customers to share sweets and renew their business relationship with them. This tradition is still practiced, especially by jewelers.

 Pohela Boishakh is deeply rooted with in the heart of  Bengali people. In the past it was mainly celebrated in rural areas but now it has become enormously big in the cities, especially in Dhaka and Chittagong. Usually on this day we wear new dresses, clean up our homes and get up from bed early in the morning. Peoples spend much of the day visiting relatives, friends, and neighbors. Special foods are prepared to entertain guests. Boishakhi fairs are arranged in many parts of the country. Various agricultural products, traditional handicrafts, toys, cosmetics, as well as various kinds of food and sweets are sold at these fairs. The fairs also provide entertainment, with singers and dancers staging jatra (traditional plays), pala gan, kobigan, jarigan, gambhira gan, gazir gan and alkap gan. They present folk songs as well as baul, marfati, murshidi and bhatiali songs. Narrative plays like Laila-Majnu, Yusuf-Zulekha and Radha-Krishna are staged. Among other attractions of these fairs are puppet shows and merry-go-rounds.

There are some festivals we have added recently and we do not follow some old festivals. Community people of Dhaka city arrange “Kite flying” and “bull racing” arranged by Munshiganj people, two very much enjoyable events. Other popular village games and sports were horse races, bullfights, cockfights, flying pigeons, and boat racing. We still two events very much. One is bali (wrestling) in Chittagong and gambhira in Rajshahi are still popular events.

Now city peoples enjoy this day especially the younger peoples more. They wake up early in the morning and gather under a large tree mainly under big banyan tree and observe the sunshine. The main event of the celebration used to happen under the large tree in Ramna Park and we called the place Romna Botmul. Artists, singers and other people present song, drama and the whole atmosphere turn into musical. People of all walks of life used to wear traditional dress. Girls wear white sari with red border and bindis on forehead. Bangles of various color are a good stuff and commonly use. Male people wear Pajama, panjabi and village people wear lungi and shirt. Various foods are made in this day. We usually start our breakfast with fried Ilish fish, rice soaked in water, green chilies and onion.

Television, radio and other news media publish special news and programs. A similar ceremony is also held at the Institute of Fine Arts, University of Dhaka. Students and teachers of the institute take out a colourful procession and parade round the campus. Social and cultural organisations celebrate the day with cultural programmes. There is a historical importance of Pohela boishakh. Pakistan government had stopped all the poetries by Rabindra nath tagore and the then tagore’s supporter protested againt the declaration and at first opened their celebration from Chhayanat by singing the song of Rabindra nath. Before the liberation war it was celebrated as a Bengali cultural program of the than east Pakistan. But after the liberation war it becomes our national holiday.