Hiren Pandit: Pahela Boisakh or Nabarbasha means ushering in the new year. This has been happening since ancient times. Similarly, the first Boishakh New Year of the Bengali nation. This is our new year. It is embedded in our blood and consciousness. Because for us January 1 means the new year! Today we bring the culture of others into our culture. Our year is Bengali, our month is Bengali but we follow English. If many people are asked, what is the date of the Bengali year today? We don’t remember the date and the name of the year. Therefore, Pahela Boishakh brings joy and love to Bengalis, removing all the wear and tear of the whole year. Pahela Boishakh is a bridging of civic life with people. Be it busy city life or rural life, this New Year unites the Bengali nation in a sense of nationhood.
The Pahela Boishakh event becomes a meeting of roots for every Bengali. The Bengali nation rises above all the identities of religion and caste and welcomes this New Year.
Since Pahela Boishakh is the first day of the Bengali month, there is a frenzy of eating and drinking around this day. Every house in town and village has a good or bad, more or less cooking, which everyone observes as a pala-parban or a festival day. Sweets are the main attraction of any Bengali festival no Bengali festival or event is complete or complete without sweets and along with fish. Panta hilsa and many other things have taken place in the list of celebrations this Pahela Boishakh. Various types of meat and fish are cooked on this day.
Among the fish, the main attraction is the hilsa fish and the fish traders increase the price of all kinds of fish, especially the hilsa fish, based on this day in the market. A few days before Pahela Boishakh, the price of this fish increased. But everyone tries to buy as much as possible and yogurt is sweet. Village fairs turn into festivals. The color of this festival has repeatedly pushed the Bengali nation forward to build a non-communal state. The people of this country are always sincere, genuine and pioneering to welcome the new year. Many rituals are organized by people of all professions around the year of long preparations.
We find different art of drawing of folk practical paper through this painting. The artist dreams of the future in their colorful paintings. The generation of the Bengali nation developed its own culture. Many cultural organizations in the country, including Dhaka University, organized the Mangal Shobhajatra (Procession for Virtuous). This procession started in 1989 as a strong protest against all bad culture and irregularities. In 2016, the United Nations body UNESCO included this procession in the list of the important cultural heritage of the world. Which was a huge achievement for Bengali culture.
Apart from this, music, dance, or recitation are held in every region of the country including Ramna Batamul. Each of these arts reminds us of our roots. Welcome the new year of your identity. This New Year’s festival is a universal and non-communal spirit program for men and women, people from all walks of life, rich and poor. The freedom to join the festival is also equal for everyone. When a nation is strong in its own culture, it cannot be swallowed by any bad culture or bad reform.
Therefore, the arts that have climbed up the ladder of their own culture need regular practice. We have to take a position under the shadow of our own culture to protect and spread our own culture. We will also be familiar with other cultures, but our individuality should not be covered behind it. As Bengalis, it is also important for us to have a responsibility toward our own culture. Pahela Boishakh, the first day of Bengali New Year, true history, the festival day of Bengali life, and the address of our roots. Pahela Boishakh means ‘Eso hey Boisakh, Eso hey Boishakh,’. Pahela Boishakh, the first day of the Bengali year, comes around every year with that familiar song.
This song, written by poet Rabindranath Tagore, makes the first day of the Bengali year even more beautiful. This Pahela Boishakh erases all the calculations. The first day of the year in Dhaka begins with a cultural program organized by Ramana Botomul Chayanot. This Boishakh celebration starts all over the country with its own rules or style. Every year the procession comes out from the Fine Arts Institute of Dhaka. Throughout the day, there is a festive atmosphere everywhere, with fairs and small festivals in many places. This festival is not only limited to Dhaka, various fairs, jatras and music events are also organized in the rural areas. Various postures while sitting. Various sweets, batasa, murki, nimki, etc. Nagordola, Bioscope and many other fun games. In the village, football games and boating are also included. This type of Boishakhi fair lasts for a whole month, along with various Boishakhi events.
Pahela Boishakh is the biggest non-sectarian festival of Bengali. The custom of celebrating Pahela Boishakh as New Year dates back to the time of Mughal Emperor Akbar. The Bengali year is the solar year version of the Arabic or Hijri year. Since then, the last day of the year i.e. 30 Chaitra is celebrated as Chaitra Sankranti and Pahela Boishakh as New Year in Sambar. Celebrating New Year is a part of human civilization. The beginning of Barshabaran festival in human society was probably four thousand years ago. It is believed that the beginning of the New Year was in Babylon. People on the banks of Padma, Meghna, and Jamuna have also been celebrating Barshabaran for thousands of years.
Even though the Gregorian calendar was introduced as a national calendar during the British colonial period, the importance of the Bengali calendar in rural society did not decrease so much. With the evolution of time, the use of the Gregorian calendar also increased in rural society. Even so, the farming community still carries out its crop activities keeping in mind the Bengali season. Bangla’s relationship with the country’s largest production system. The business community has also kept the Bangla New Year alive through Halkhata.
Boishakhi Fair is one of the accompaniments of the Bengali New Year. New year’s Boishakhi fair becomes a meeting place for all people irrespective of caste and religion. The Bengali New Year comes with the lamentation of the stormy winds of Kalbaisakhi. All that is worn out is thrown away and the New Year is ushered in with the new. On New Year, Bengalis take an oath to forget past sorrows, deprivations and failures and move forward. The Bengali independence movement, and liberation war everywhere there is the unyielding determination of Pahela Boishakh. New Year has been considered as the main source of Bengali universal culture for ages. Halkhata, Boishakhi fairs and urban panta-hilsa revelry – allow us to think of ourselves as Bengali even in this age of modernity.
Happy New Year let the worn-out old, sad memories of the outgoing year wash away. Burn the rubbish of the failed life and let the waves of good welfare come to life. On the first dawn of the new year, people, irrespective of caste and creed, enjoy universal joy and happiness. The people of the country welcome the New Year with songs of harmony, beauty and welfare.
Hiren Pandit is an essayist, researcher and a columnist