THE nation celebrates the Bengali New Year ‘Pohela Boishakh’ today with bountiful fanfare and socio-cultural festivities in the capital and throughout the country. We will receive the Bengali Year 1421 this morning with welcoming soirées at the city’s Ramna Botomul as the tradition has developed over the last two decades along with similar renderings of welcoming songs in other open air spaces, parks and public grounds greeting friends and welcoming the New Year. We welcome Pohela Boishakh which always brings the new year of hope to the people leaving behind the sorrows and pains of the outgoing year. It is a public holiday and most people will stay throughout the day in the outdoor enjoying festivities with families and friends. Roads side vendors selling handicrafts and way-side shops selling ‘Hilsha-Panta’ are some of the distinguishing feature that dominate the events of the day. Police have clamped comprehensive security arrangement in the capital and throughout the country on the occasion.
The highlight of the day in the capital will be the bringing out of ‘Mongol Shovajatra’ in the morning from the Institute of Fine Arts of the Dhaka University. Thousands of people from all walks of life will take part in the procession carrying various signs and symbols of old relics, animals and ghosts as reminiscent of our old days’ rural based folk culture. People attired in colourful dress will sing and dance; young people – boys and girls will join the procession breaking all social taboos. In fact, Pohela Boishakh is slowly reshaping the roots of Bengali culture towards secularism and to the domination of natural values away from religious overtures to create what the organizers believe a non-communal society in the country.
Businessmen today will also open new book of accounts closing the outgoing year’s business calculus. They will distribute sweets among friends and pray for a good business year to come. In fact, Pohela Boishakh came to dominate Bengali life when Emperor Akbar set the revenue collection date in this part of the Moghul Empire beginning from this month in coincidence with crop harvests. But at our time Bangladesh is an independent nation and Pohela Boishakh has emerged to emphasis the foundation of Bengaliness of culture. But no culture remains unaffected by progress of time. We have to believe in it and go ahead to show that though our cultural roots make different from others, but still we are one with the modernity and dynamism of progress.
