Culture Post 1: Pohela Boishakh
Pohela Boishakh (literally means first year) is the Bengali New Year and is celebrated in Bangladesh and West Bengal in India as well as other Bengali communities all over the world. It normally occurs during April 14 or 15 and it is one of Bangladesh's national holidays. Pohela Boisakh isn't a religious holiday, but rather a cultural part of Bangladesh and so it's celebrated by all groups in the country. Pohela Boisakh dates back to the Mughal period during Jalaluddin Muhammad Akbar's reign when he made a change to the calendar in order to change the date of the agricultural tax collection to make it easier for his people. Since the calendar used before was based on the lunar calculations, a mixture of lunar and solar calculations was used for the calendar reform which was quite unique since very different methods of calculation were used for each one. Every year people celebrated this change by sharing sweets, closing down stores, and festivals and fairs and thus Pohela Boisakh became integrated into the culture.
In respects to the agricultural origins of Pohela Boisakh, people celebrate agricultural and rural aspects of Bangladesh by eating simplistic foods such as "Pantā-Bhāt (leftover rice soaked in water), onion,Shōbuj Lōnkā (green chillies), Āchār (pickles), dāl (lentils) &Bhāja Elish Māch (fried Hilsa fish)". People also dress up, women adorn themselves with red bindis wear saris while men will wear kurtas. Fairs are especially popular during this time because it accumulates various aspects of Bengali culture such as clothing, food, dancing/cultural performances. In 1965 when Bangladesh was part of Pakistan, the Pakistani government banned poems by Rabindranath Tagore in an attempt to suppress Bengali culture. Being that he was such an integral part of Bengali culture, a Bangladeshi cultural group, Chhayanat, resisted the ban and played Tagore's songs/poems as the opening to a Boisakh celebration. From then on, Rabindranath became steeped into the new year celebration and Pohela Boisakh became even more of a part of the peoples' heritage and sense of nationalism.
Since I'm interested in writing Bangla and its word formations, I found this chart interesting.
Photos of the celebration:
Source: http://promotebangla.blogspot.com/2011/11/pohela-boishakh-bengali-new-year.html#.U12TgvldWSo
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