C T Online Desk: The nation celebrates Pahela Baishakh, the first day of Bangla New Year 1430, today to reinvigorate its rich culture and heritage.
Pahela Baishakh is not just the beginning of a New Year to the Bangalees. It is a day when people of this land reaffirm the unity of a nation whose social, cultural and religious tapestry is woven by diverse threads blending in perfect harmony.
People from all walks of life irrespective of caste, creed and religious belief celebrate the day coming close to each other and looking back to their roots sinking all differences.
President M Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina greeted the country’s people on the occasion of Bangla New Year.
In separate messages, they also wished peace, happiness and prosperity for the people and the country.
Leader of the Opposition in Parliament Rawshon Ershad, Jatiya Party Chairman GM Quader, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and leaders of other political parties also greeted the people on the occasion.
The day is a public holiday in Bangladesh.
This year’s Pahela Baishakh celebrations are quite different from other years as the day coincides with Muslims’ fasting month of Ramadan.
Consequently, there will be no arrangement of special food items, one of the most attractive features of Bangla New Year celebrations, but people will enjoy festivity, merriment, grandeur and funfair on the day.
Pahela Baishakh celebrations are largely connected to the peasant culture of the country’s rural areas.
Mughal Emperor Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar introduced the Bangla calendar to facilitate revenue collections, making the calculation of date and months more scientific and consistent with the harvesting season.
Later, traders picked Pahela Baishakh for their business. Arranging a special programme named Halkhata, they inspire customers to repay debts, and entertain them with sweetmeats marking the occasion.
Baishakhi mela (fair) is another mega event arranged every year across the country as part of the Bangla New Year celebrations where various features of the Bangalee culture are exhibited.
For the last several decades, Pahela Baishakh has been widely celebrated in cities and towns.
Wearing red and white panjabis, saris and salwar-kamizes, thousands of city dwellers visit different spots and pass time with their near and dear ones in a cheerful atmosphere.
Security has been beefed up at Ramna Park and on the Dhaka University campus for Pahela Baishakh celebrations. Dhaka Metropolitan Police said all public events centring on the New Year must end by 5:00pm.
The festivities in Dhaka are scheduled to begin at dawn with the artistes from Chhayanaut welcoming New Bangla Year with the tune of raga Ahir Bhairav at Ramna Batamul.
Over 100 artistes and 50 musical instrument players and technicians of Chhayanaut rehearsed in the last two months as part of their preparations for the programme.
Chhayanaut General Secretary Laisa Ahmed Lisa said the whole programme is arranged with songs of nature, love of humanity, patriotism and self-realisation and lyrics and tunes of awakening.
On the first dawn of this New Year, Chhayanaut, who aspires to attain truth and beauty, calls to ‘Sing fearless song removing all the garbage of the past’.
Coordinator of the rehearsal Bashir Al Helal said there will be 10 chorus songs, 11 solo songs, two recitations of poetry and the programme will finally end with the national anthem.
Bangladesh Television and Bangladesh Betar will broadcast this event live from Ramana Batamul for about two hours. It can be seen on Chhayanaut’s YouTube channel as well.
Since the initiation of the programme in 1967, Chhayanaut arranged it every year except the turbulent year of the Liberation War in 1971. Despite the horrific bomb attack on the programme in 2001, the famed cultural organisation did not hesitate to maintain the continuity.
But the event could not take place in the two years of pandemic in 2020 (1427 Bangla) and 2021 (1428 Bangla) due to the severe outbreak of coronavirus.
Another major event of welcoming the New Year in the capital is the colourful Mangal Shobhajatra on the Dhaka University campus where students of the Faculty of Fine Art will display various carnival floats and symbols, large colourful masks, replicas of Tepa doll, tiger, peacock, sheep, nilgai and child in mother’s lap and other cultural motifs that highlight the traditional folklore of Bangladesh.
Under the planning and supervision of the dean of the Faculty of Fine Art, Prof Nisar Hossain, the students of the 24th batch have been given the responsibility of the procession this time. Current and former students of the faculty have also joined them.
Lending Rabindranath Tagore’s line ‘Borisho Dhora Majhe Shantiro Bari (In a downpour, a message of peace) the theme of this year’s Mangal Shobhajatra has been determined to seek peace in the war-torn world.
“Every year we select a theme considering the context of Bangladesh and the world. Currently there’s a conflict and instability among people. The Russia-Ukraine war has reached its peak. As a result, the global economy has collapsed. So, our wish this time is peace on the earth and that is why this theme has been fixed,” Prof Nisar Hossain said.
Being inspired by a procession that had taken place in Jashore in 1985, the tradition of organising Mangal Shobhajatra in the capital began in 1989 and gradually it became an integral part of the Bangalee culture. It was recognised as the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2016.
Apart from Chhayanaut and Faculty of Fine Art, Wrishiz Shilpi Gosthi, Dhaka University’s Theatre and Performance Studies department, Udichi Shilpi Gosthi and different government organisations, including Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, Bangladesh Shishu Academy, Bangla Academy and Nazrul Institute, and educational institutions across the country have chalked out elaborate programmes to welcome Bangla New Year 1430.
