English
Assignment No.:1
Assignment On: Composition
PREPARED FOR:

Lecturer Nasrin Farzana

PREPARED BY
Batch: BBA 051 B
051 15879 Md. Majharul Haque

Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA)

STAMFORD UNIVERSITY BANGLADESH
Dhanmondi, Dhaka.
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PAHELA BAISHAKH
Bangla New Year or Pohela Boishakh marks the first day of the Bangla
Calendar. Pohela Boishakh is celebrated with great fervour in the South Asian region of Bengal (Bangladesh and Indian/West Bengal) and among Bengali communities living in the Indian states of Tripura and Assam (Specially in
Barak Valley). Pohela Boishakh coincides with the New Years in many other Southern Asian calendars.
Bangla New Year or Pohela Boishakh connects all Ethnic Bengalis irrespective of religious and regional differences. Ethnic Bengalis across the world and from all walks of life unite to celebrate the Public or Universal Festival of Bengalis
i.e. Pohela Boishakh; it’s the occasion to welcome the New-Year with a new hope of peace, prosperity and goodwill. Pohela Boishakh generally falls on 14th or 15th of April of the Georgian calendar. In Bangladesh, it is a national holiday celebrated around 14th April according to the official amended calendar designed by the Bangla Academy. In India, in Indian/West Bengal & Assam it is a public (state) holiday and is publicly celebrated on 15th of April.

Celebration of Pohela Boishakh
Pohela Boishakh is a Public festival of the Bengalis; it is celebrated among all
Bengalis irrespective of religious and regional differences. As discussed earlier; the celebrations started from Akbar’s reign. But the Public celebration of Pohela
Boishakh and the large-scale organizations of cultural events have started more recently. Rabindranath Tagore had said that a person feels stronger, complete & united when he’s among other fellow mates on the occasion of a festival as compared to daily life. Truly, socializing brings a lot of change in the personality of a person; it actually changes his outlook towards the world and makes him broad minded, well-mannered and a better person indeed. Nowadays it’s seen that, due to our busy schedule and hectic life we tend to forget the purpose of the festivals after they are over; people come together during festivals, forget their differences but as soon as the festival is over the differences are highlighted once again!
The Pohela Boishakh celebrations and festivities reflect the life in rural Bengal.
Usually on this day everything is washed and cleaned; people bathe early in the morning and dress in fine clothes and then go to visit
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Relatives and friends. Special food items are prepared for the guests. Starting as a rural festival, Pohela Boishakh has now become an integral part of Bengali culture. People from all walks of life dress-up in traditional Bengali attire: Men wear Dhuti / Payejama / Lungi and Kurta /Panjabi. Young women wear white
Saris with red borders, and adorn themselves with Tip (Bindis), Churi (Bangles) and Fūl (Flowers). It’s like a custom to start the day with the traditional breakfast of Panta-Bhat (leftover rice soaked in water), onion, Shobuj Lonka
(Green chillies), Achar (Pickles),Dal (Lentils) & Bhaja Elish Mach (fried Hilsa fish). Boishakhi Fairs are organized in many parts of Bengal. The lifestyle of rural
Bengal is showcased in almost all these fairs. Various traditional handicrafts, toys, cosmetics, agricultural products, as well as various kinds of food and sweets are sold at these fairs. The fairs also provide entertainment, with singers and dancers staging jatra (traditional plays), pala gan, kobigan, jarigan, gambhira gan, gazir gan and alkap gan. They present folk songs as well as baul, marfati, murshidi and bhatiali songs. Narrative plays like Laila-Majnu, YusufZulekha and Radha-Krishna are staged. Among other attractions of these fairs are puppet shows, merry-go-round and Giant wheels are also installed and are enjoyed by the children.
In Dhaka, large numbers of people pour out of their houses and gather early in the morning under the banyan tree at Ramna Park. Along with the rising sun, the Chhayanat artists sing the famous song of Tagore in chorus, Esho, he
Boishakh, Esho Esho (Come, O Boishakh, Come, Come), welcoming Boishakh.

Celebration of Pohela Boishakh, Dhaka

Dhaka’s Pohela Boishakh celebration is incomplete without the “Mangal
Shobhajatra”. Students and teachers of the Dhaka University’s Institute of Fine
Arts take out a colorful procession (known as “Mangal Shobhajatra”) and parade on different streets and finally returns to the Fine arts Institute. This procession mainly consists of Arts & crafts like (cutouts of tigers, owls, dragon3

fly etc. and different types of masks) these colorful pieces of art display the elements of Bengali culture and resemble lifestyle of rural and modern Bengal.
People of all ages and irrespective of class and profession take part in this procession. Since 1989 this Procession (Shobhajatra) has become an important event and also a major tourist attraction.
Apart from these, various cultural programs are organized by social and cultural organizations all over Dhaka. Newspapers and magazines bring out special supplements. Targeting the Poyela Boishakh event, various movies, music albums, books etc. are released and special programs are also telecasted on television and radio.
Many old festivals connected with New Year's Day have disappeared, while new festivals have been added. With the abolition of the zamindari system, the punya connected with the closing of land revenue accounts has disappeared.
Kite flying in Dhaka and bull racing in Munshiganj used to be very colourful events. Other popular village games and sports were horse races, bullfights, cockfights, flying pigeons, and boat racing. Some festivals, however, continue to be observed; for example, bali (wrestling) in Chittagong and gambhira in
Rajshahi are still popular events.
Pohela Boishakh celebration has also hit the dancefloor of the pubs and clubs in the major cities, as an increasing number of parties are being organized nowadays for the youth. Thus, giving the celebration a western touch but keeping the indigenous feel intact.

History of Pohela Boishakh
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Pohela Boishakh celebration dates back to Mughal Emperor Jalaluddin
Muhammad Akbar’s reign. Akbar the Great, the renowned grandson of
Zahiruddin Muhammad Babar was the 3rd Mughal Emperor. In order to ease tax collection, Akbar-e-Azam changed the tradition of agricultural tax collection according to Hijri calendar and ordered a reform of the calendar because the Hijri calendar, being a lunar calendar- did not coincide with the harvest sessions and thus the farmers faced severe difficulties in paying taxes out of season.
The Royal Astrologer of Emperor Akbar's court, Aamir
Fatehullah Siraji , was the one who actually devised this calendar, after performing a research on the lunar Hijri and Solar calendar. The unique characteristic of the Bengali year was that, rather than being a lunar calendar, it was based on an amalgamation of the solar and lunar year.
This was indeed a great development, as the solar and lunar years were formulated in very different methods.
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Initially this calendar was named as “Fasli San” (agricultural year) and then Bônggabdo or Bangla Year was introduced on 10/11 March 1584, but was dated from 5th November 1556 or 963 Hijri. This was the day that
Akbar defeated Himu in the second Battle of Panipat to ascend the throne. This not only glorified his victory but also streamlined revenue collection into an orderly process. It was Akbar-e-Azam’s directive to settle all dues on the last day of Choitro. The next day was the first day of the New Year (Poyela Boishakh), the day for a new beginning; landlords would distribute sweets among their tenants, and Businessmen would open a “HalKhata” (New accounts book) and close their old ones.

Historical Importance of Poyela Boishakh in Bangladesh
In an attempt to suppress Bengali culture, the Pakistani Government had banned poems written by Rabindranath Tagore, the most famous poet and writer in
Bengali literature. Protesting this move, Chhayanat opened their Poyela
Boishakh celebrations at Ramna Park with Tagore's song welcoming the month in 1965. The day continued to be celebrated in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) as a symbol of Bengali culture. After 1972 it became a national festival, a symbol of the Bangladesh nationalist movement and an integral part of the people's cultural heritage. Later, in the mid- 1980s the Institute of Fine Arts added color to the day by initiating the Boishakhi parade, which is much like a carnival parade. In the big metropolitans like Dhaka and Chittagong this day is marked by mass crowd flocking to hundreds of open air concerts and cultural programs, mask rallies etc.

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