Pohela Boishakh — Bengali New Year
Traditional New Year · Dhaka, Bangladesh
The festival
Pohela Boishakh, the first day of the Bengali calendar, is Bangladesh's great secular festival, celebrated by all communities. Its origin dates back to the tax reform of Emperor Moghol Akbar, who aligned the calendar on harvests. In Dhaka, the day begins at dawn under the banian of Ramna Batamul, where the Chhayanaut association welcomes the year by Tagore songs since the 1960s.
Then the Mangal Shobhajatra, the "well-being procession" launched in 1989 by the students and professors of the Faculty of Fine Arts at Dhaka University, is a symbol of Bengali popular culture and resistance to dark forces. The procession was inscribed in 2016 as UNESCO's intangible cultural heritage.
Village fairs (boishakhi mela), opening of new books of accounts of traders (haalkhata) and party dinner complete the day.
Good to know
In Bangladesh, the date is fixed: April 14 (Bengali calendar reformed in 1987); in India Bengali, April 15 (14 leap years); festival classified "out" as the other traditional New Year of the catalogue.