Shuvo Naboborsho

It is festival time here. Two, in fact three, of the most important festivals arrived with a gap of only a couple of days. This is a rare event in the life of the Bangalees and other ethnic communities in the hilly regions and some coastal areas of Bangladesh. The Bangla Naboborsho popularly known as Pahela Baishakh and Boisabi followed Eid-ul-Fitr. Traditionally, Naboborsho was overshadowed by Halkhata observed on the Chaitra Sangkranti or the last day of the last month Chaitra on the Bangla calendar introduced by great Mughal emperor Akbar. This calendar was devised with the primary objective of realising taxes from farmers in an agrarian economy. The Halkhata was an offshoot of that tradition when traders invited their clients to treat them with a sumptuous feast usually of an array of sweetmeat, curd or yoghourt, flattened, fried and puffed rice. If that lent the occasion an air of festivity, it was, like return of taxes, the time to clear off all arrears or dues owed to traders for business transactions of the entire year.

Essentially, the activities revolved around economy and economic solvency expressed its range and scope through village fairs arranged on the Sangkranti day and the Pahela Baishakh. In those days, communication was not easy and each village tried to develop handicrafts or cottage industries in order to meet as much its own requirements as possible. Evidently, the focus was on economy around which the festival took its shape. But Boisabi celebrated among different ethnic communities are more colourful and extensive. Boisabi takes the first letters of Boisu of Tripuria, Sangrai of Marmas and Biju of Chakmas and Tanchangas. It is a celebration of a transition from the old to the new, hopefully auspicious, in which there is a competition for collection of flowers and letting those to float away on rivers and rivulets. It is followed by sprinkling of water usually between adult boys and girls where especially Marma youths can express their love in public by throwing water at those near to their hearts.

The urban edition of Pahela Baishakh celebration owes largely to Rabindranath who introduced Basantotsab in Shantiniketan where his famous song, "Eso hey Baishakh, eso eso...." welcomed the Bangla New Year. It was Chayanaut, the leading cultural organisation here, that actually pioneered the celebration of Pahela Baishakh and set the artistic and aesthetically pleasing tone of modern celebration of the occasion. Later on, the Charukala Institute added colours and motif of traditional Bangla art to the celebration.

No celebration is complete, though, without special food and new dress and adornment. All these are an expression of a particular people. On that count the people including the ethnic communities have by now amply demonstrated their rich and diverse culture and tradition through the celebration of their New Year. Yet today's economy is not Pahela Baishakh or Boisabi-centric as it was in the past. Halkhata is a fading tradition because of a lack of trust in business transactions based on deferred payment. Instant payment is the order of the day. Although rural economy has become stronger of late, the ugly fact of marginalisation of a segment is ubiquitous there. In cities and towns, the face of poverty is even more cruel. But that actually does not impede the mood of celebration. It is a lack of cultural orientation and affinity which stands in the way of turning the celebration more popular and all-compassing like those of the ethnic populations.