Sheikh Arif Bulbon :
Falgun is the eleventh month in the Bengali calendar and the first month of the season, Spring, the king of all six seasons.
The first of Falgun is known as Pahela Falgun and usually falls on February 13 of the Gregorian calendar.
Pahela Falgun is marked with a colourful celebration of the advent of Spring. It symbolises the festival of colour, coherence of heart and a refreshing start of life.
Falgun brings joys and colours both in nature and life. After the dryness of winter, new leaves start to come out again and the nature adorns the brunches with new colourful flowers like Shimul, Polash, Marigolds, etc. Specially the Krishnachura (gold mohar) brings the news of spring first. Cuckoos start singing from trees to trees from this day.
Everything in nature gives an impression of youthfulness or freshness as if the nature takes a new birth.
Colourful flowers, melody of birds or mild touch of the sunshine – everything will make you feel that springtime is the nature’s festival.
The festival lover Bangladeshi people welcome and celebrate this day with great joys, love and in a colourful manner. The blazing red and yellow are the representative colours of Pahela Falgun. Bengali people embellish themselves with these two primary colours. Girls are dressed in Bashonti (yellow or orange) coloured sarees and adorning floral ornaments while boys wear colourful panjabis to welcome the arrival of spring.
The centre point of this festivity is Bakultala of the Faculty of Fine Arts (Commonly known as Charukala) of Dhaka University. Thousands of young men and women gather in the morning and celebrate the day with signing songs, reciting poems and dancing. The jingle of the celebration is Esho Mili Pran-er Utsab-e (Come, let us celebrate life together).
Jatiyo Boshonto Utsab Udjapon Parishad arranges the main celebration program of the day for over a decade. The celebration usually begins at around 7:00am in the morning.
The festivals start with traditional musical and dance shows performed by the artists of Chhayanaut and Bangladesh Shishu Academy. At around 10:00am a rally starts from Bokultala, it revolves round the TSC and later ends at Charukala.
The entire Dhaka University campus and the Ekushey Boi Mela becomes the best place to hang out with friends, family members and beloved ones. The day inspires everybody to fall in love, to be romantic.
Students of the Faculty of Fine Arts are seen painting motifs on the cheeks and hands of visitors.
In fact, Pahela Falgun brings joys, colours and hopes not only in the nature but also in the lives and minds of the people of all ages. They celebrate the day and paint their hearts with the colours of Boshonto (Spring). n
