Bangladesh
Poila Baisakh Bangladesh gears up to celebrate Bengali New Year
Dhaka, April 13: Tomorrow is Poila Baisakh. The new Bengali year 1430 will be added to the Bengali calendar. Today is Chaitra Sankranti, a traditional festival of Bengal. Chaitra Sankranti is the last day of Chaitra month. It is also the last day of the Bengali year.
Tomorrow is the first day of Baisakh - the Bengali New Year. Let the worn-out old things be washed away, let the gloom be erased.
Poila Baisakh inspires us to avoid all narrowness and vices and build a liberal lifestyle. It gives us the inspiration to live with new enthusiasm by removing all the maladies and dilapidations inside our mind. We are Bengalis, a proud nation in the heart of the world, this sense of patriotism and Bengaliness in us is revived and energized on the first day of Baisakh.
On the other hand, Poila Baisakh is a universal folk festival of Bengalis. On this day, the new year is welcomed in a joyful atmosphere. New Year is a symbol of prosperity and new life. Forgetting the sadness of past mistakes and failures, the New Year is celebrated with new wishes for happiness, peace and prosperity.
The country will celebrate the colorful festival on the first day of Baisakh tomorrow. The first ray of dawn will paint new dreams, hopes and possibilities. There will be various New Year celebrations in the capital and across the country. The government has taken a comprehensive program at the national level to celebrate 'Bangla New Year 1430' in a grand manner. The day is a public holiday. Fine Arts Faculty of Dhaka University has organized 'Mangal Shobhayatra' and cultural programs. Chhaynat has organized a cultural program at Ramana Botmule early in the morning.
Once New Year was celebrated as seasonal festival. It was then closely related to agriculture, as agriculture was seasonal. Later Bengali year calculation was started during Mughal Emperor Akbar's time to facilitate agriculture and tax collection.
This new Bengali year was introduced based on Hijri Chandrasana and Bengali solar year. In the past, the main festival of Bengali New Year was Halkhata. It is purely an economic matter. Businessmen in villages, townships and cities used to complete their old accounts and open new account books at the beginning of the new year. On this occasion, they would invite new and old customers and distribute sweets and establish new business links with them. This traditional event is celebrated even today. In 1989, the first Mangal Shobhayatra was organized by Dhaka University Fine Arts Institute. On November 30, 2016, UNESCO declared the procession a World Cultural Heritage.
