Spectacular fireworks lighting up Dhaka sky but at the cost of health and environment —Agency photo The Bangalees are fond of celebrations so much so that they have invented 13 festivities of their own for 12 months. Lately they have shown growing interests in incorporating quite a few from foreign or alien cultures. While the generational festivities and entertainment of the old are on the wane, the craze for embracing these new ones is peaking at a faster rate. Thankfully, the craze is limited to large urban centres as part of a blind imitation of the Western world. Rural Bangladesh is immune to this transformation. The 31st December's rowdiness and revelry leading to the New Year's fireworks and the Valentine Day's exchange of gifts have no tradition in this part of the world.
However, the embarrassing fact is that the majority members of the elite class of Bangalee urban society will fail to precisely tell which date of the Bangla month and year today is, although they have no problem to correctly mention the date, month and year on the Gregorian calendar. But they are not found wanting in enthusiasm for joining their rural compatriots to celebrate the Pahela Baishakh with enough fervour. The use of Gregorian calendar may be official but the vast majority of villagers still follow the Bangla calendar with reference to the auspicious days for various rituals and chores such as laying the foundation of houses, entering a newly built house, sowing seeds, harvesting, inauguration of shops or business etc. Again, there is a slight variation (often a difference of a day) between the dates of traditional almanac and the officially accepted more scientific calendar. Then, the majority community follows the Islamic Hizri calendar for observance of all the religious occasions and festivals.
Clearly, the Bangalees have two New Year's Days to celebrate and three calendars to follow. Due to the celebratory makeup of mind, they are divided on the borderline of urban and rural spaces. The New Year's Day has not found a place in the villager's, not even the young generation's hearts there. But in large cities, the exuberance of celebration borders on the edge of insanity with fire crackers exploding to make deafening sounds and fireworks lighting up the midnight sky to add to the sonic boom. This year Nature lovers, bird clubs and environmentalists made impassioned appeal for restraint to such wild and senseless celebration for at least one and a half hours starting from 11:30 pm of December 31. They advanced arguments in favour of the environment, babies, elderly people and patients particularly those with heart conditions and other living beings, birds among those. Reportedly, more than a hundred birds of four species die in Dhaka on the night because out of fear they try to escape from the intense flashes of fireworks and the booming sounds.
Regrettably, the appeal fell on deaf ears. The New Year's Day celebration exacts a heavy price worldwide. The capital of Dhaka is no exception. Already it has earned an infamy for air and sound pollution. On this night, the quality of air deteriorates even further. According to the Centre for Atmospheric Pollution Studies (CAPS), air pollution in Dhaka increased by an average of 19 per cent because of the midnight frenzy between 11 pm and 1.0 am over the past seven years. The variation of air pollution recorded was from the lowest 6.0 per cent to the highest 66 per cent. The sound pollution increased to 74 per cent during the same time. In financial terms, the expenditure on fire crackers and fireworks is quite a substantial amount.
This year could be an exception to the rowdy celebration because the nation has found an opportunity to rediscover itself with the August 5 uprising opening an avenue. There is no harm welcoming the New Year on the Gregorian calendar but this did not have to be a blind imitation of the Western hemisphere. Instead of the fireworks, candle lights lit in artistic patterns could be a peaceful and sober option for the celebration. The Bangalees' Pahela Baishakh celebration with its sublime and aesthetic aura can be an example.
In Asian cultures, flying lantern or sky lantern festival has a long tradition. Although it is also a pollutant, limited use of such lanterns may be a better alternative, if managed carefully. After all, those do not cause palpitation of hearts both of human beings and other creatures as firecrackers and fireworks do. But the revellers had a different idea and dug deep into their pockets to have a spectacular display of fireworks on the night sky oblivious of the disturbances and danger caused to people and other creatures living in the city.
When the biggest challenge before the nation is to set at right the ship floundering in the whirlwind because the majority of people are yet to realise the enormous gravity of chiselling their expectation to conform to the student leaderships' iconoclastic campaign for systemic transformation, such celebrations fall out of step. The functionaries of the interim government are appealing for unity but unless a common ground instead of the divisive narratives between and among them, the architects of the August 5 uprising and the political parties is found, the concept of national solidarity on polity cannot germinate and reach maturity. If the majority do not capture the essence of a discrimination-free society, it will be more challenging to take ahead the programme. Even reforms are likely to fall short of the mission. In a world dictated by giant multinationals and the Bretton Woods institutions, small nations are entrapped in the former's cobwebs with little scope for manoeuvring.
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