Pahela Baishakh, the first day of Bengali New Year-1431, is being celebrated across the country today with festivity, upholding the rich cultural values and rituals of the Bangalees. A huge number of people are expected to join the "Nobo Borsho" festivities across the country, particularly in the capital. Pahela Baishakh is one of the most colourful festivals through which the Bangalees bid farewell to the old year and welcome the new.
On this occasion, people from all walks of life wear traditional Bengali attire. Young women wear sarees with red borders and adorn themselves with bangles, flowers, and tips while men wear payjamas and panjabis.
The programmes of the day was began in the capital with a musical soiree of Chhayanat, a leading cultural organisation of the country, at Ramna Batamul at dawn. Traditional Mangal Shobhajatra will be brought out from Dhaka University Fine Arts Faculty premises in the morning. Bangladesh Television, Bangladesh Betar and private television channels will live broadcast the programmes. Mangal Shobhajatra will also be brought out at divisional, district, and upazila levels.
Business communities, especially in the rural areas, are ready to open their traditional "Halkhata", new account books. On the day, traders also offer sweets to customers. President Mohammed Shahabuddin and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina issued separate messages greeting the countrymen on the eve of the Pahela Baishakh yesterday.
Different government and non-government organisations, socio-cultural platforms, including Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, Bangladesh Shishu Academy, Bangla Academy, Department of Public Libraries, the National Museum, Kabi Nazrul Institute, Copyright Office, National Book Centre, Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC), the Department of Archives and Library, and Dhaka University will hold various programmes such as seminars, exhibitions, quiz, essay and art competitions marking the festival.
Besides, local administration organise quiz competitions, cultural programmes, and folk fairs. The day usually begins with the traditional breakfast of panta bhat (soaked rice), green chili, onion and fried fish at Ramna Park, Suhrawardy Udyan, Dhaka University campus, Rabindra Sarobar and other places. On the occasion, all museum and archaeological sites will remain open. Children, students, people with disabilities and autism will be allowed to visit the museum free of cost.
Traditional food will be served to jail inmates, patients in hospitals and orphanages. Bangladesh missions abroad will also organise different programmes to welcome the Bangla New Year. The law enforcement agencies will take extensive security measures across the country so that people could celebrate the day. The day is a public holiday. Bangladesh Television, Bangladesh Betar and other private TV and radio channels will air special programmes highlighting the significance of Pahela Baishakh.
Some historians attribute the Bengali calendar to the seventh century King Shashanka, which was later modified by Mughal Emperor Akbar for the purpose of tax collection. During the Mughal rule, land taxes were collected from Bengali people according to the Islamic Hijri calendar. This calendar was a lunar calendar, and its new year did not coincide with the solar agricultural cycles. Akbar asked the royal astronomer Fathullah Shirazi to create a new calendar by combining the lunar Islamic calendar and solar Hindu calendar already in use, and this was known as Fasholi Shan (harvest calendar).
