Pahela Baishakh, the first day of Bangla New Year 1420, was celebrated Sunday across the country amid traditional fanfare and festivities, with a call to resist the evil forces, including war criminals of the 1971 independence war.
People from all walks of life greeted the rising sun heralding the advent of the New Year.
People thronged the streets, parks, and other open spaces in the capital and elsewhere joining the nation’s most colourful traditional festival.
Cultural and musical groups ushered in the new Bangla year with songs, dance numbers, poetry recitals, etc.
The festivities began in Dhaka as usual with Chhayanaut, one of the country’s leading performing arts training institutions, holding a musical programme during the sunrise at Ramna Batamul, with thousands of men, women, and children joining the audience amid a heightened security against the background of continued political violence and volatility.
The artistes of Chhayanaut, which has been holding the programme since 1965, wearing red and green sarees symbolising the national flag, started this year’s New Year programme by rendering a classical music composition in Raga Bhairaba, followed by the Tagore song ‘Eso he Baishakh, eso eso’.
After the end of the Chhayanaut programme at around 9:45am, people went to join the Mangal Sobhajatra, or welfare parade, a key feature of the Pahela Baishakh festival.
Dhaka University fine arts students and youngsters took out a huge Mangal Sobhajatra in the capital this New Year, praying for victory of the benevolent forces against the evil.
The theme of this year’s Pahela Baishakh was ‘Rajakar-mukto Bangladesh, Muktijuddha Onisshesh’ [A Razakar-free Bangladesh, Continued Liberation War].
The Sobhajatra organisers expressed their solidarity with the Shahbagh protesters, who have been continuing with their movement since February 5 in demand of the capital punishment of all war criminals of 1971.
The Shahbgah protesters held a rally in the evening, marking Pahela Baishakh. They also formed a human chain with the theme ‘Baishakher Ongikar Rukhte Hobe Razakar’ [The Pledge of This Baishakh is to resist the Razakars].
The protesters later took out a candle-light procession.
Many people were seen eating panta bhat [boiled rice kept in water overnight] with fried hilsa, lentil soup, and smoked chilli – the traditional Pahela Baishakh morning breakfast – in numerous places of public congregation across the capital city.
Traders in both rural and urban areas opened new ledgers, called Hal Khata, for the newly commenced year, after settling accounts of the year that just had ended. Hal Khata is an age-old business tradition of the Bangali nation.
People in Dhaka also gathered on the Manik Mia Avenue to watch a mammoth Alpana [a painted floral motif] drawn overnight by several hundred artists under a joint initiative of the mobile operator Airtel and the daily Prothom Alo to welcome the new Bangla year.
Besides, the musical group Surerdhara and Channel I television organised jointly a cultural show at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in the city’s Sher-e-Bangla Nagor area.
Most of the Pahela Baishakh celebration programmes were hosted this year by corporate entities, mainly multinational companies and mobile operators. Television channels covered most of the programmes live.
The ethnic communities living in the Chittagong Hill Tracts held their New Year celebrations of Baisuk, Sangrai, and Biju, collectively called Baisabi.
The day was a public holiday. State-owned and private radio and television channels aired special programmes and newspapers brought out supplements to mark the festival.
The Bangali people living in the Pashchim Banga and Tripura stated of India also celebrated Pahela Baishakh.
The government took special security measures for this year’s Pahela Baishakh celebrations against the background of a drawn-out political confrontation and violence. Some 12,500 members of the police and the Rapid Action Battalion were deployed in the capital to ensure safety and security of the New Year revellers.
In 2001, the nation suffered the shell shock killing of at least 10 people in a powerful bomb explosion at Ramna Batamul when Pahela Baishakh celebrations were going on.
New Age correspondents in Barisal, Chittgong, Khulna, Rajshahi, Jessore, Sylhet, and other district headquarters reported that Pahela Boishakh was celebrated peacefully in the cities and towns amid colourful festivities.
Bangladesh missions abroad also marked the day with due enthusiasm and celebrations. (Source)
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