Pahela Baishakh: The Cultural Essence
Tuesday, 14 April 2009
Mohammad Shahidul Islam
Days come and go; Pahela Baishakh too, but with a motivating message to keep Bengali nationalism alive. Pahela Baishakh arrives to let us regain the spirit and enthusiasm of Bengali-ness. Pahela Baishakh has been playing a symbolic role for our culture and heritage.
The Bengali-speaking population all over the world eagerly awaits Pahela Baishakh, an exclusive and unique "day" in their lives. There is a noticeable difference in the nature and essence between the Bengali New Year and the English New Year. While the English New Year's day is also comprehensively celebrated across Bangladesh, it merely champions the arrival of yet another year whereas Bengali 'Nobo Borsho' (new year's day) not only celebrates the coming of the New Year but also attests our loyalty to ourselves. Bengali individualism is quite different from the culture and heritage of other nations.
The historical importance of Pahela Baishakh in the Bangladeshi context may be dated back to the observance of the day by Chhayanat in 1965. In an attempt to hold back Bengali culture, the then Pakistani Government had disqualified poems written by Rabindranath Tagore, the pride of Bengali literature. Protesting this move, Chhayanat opened their Pahela Baishakh celebrations at Ramna Park with Tagore songs, welcoming the month. The celebration of the day was continued in the then East Pakistan as a mark of Bengali culture.
After our independence, it became a national festival, a mark of the Bangladesh nationalist movement and a fundamental part of the people's cultural heritage. Later, in the mid-1980s the Institute of Fine Arts added colour to the day by initiating the Pahela Baishakhi procession, which is much like a party victory celebration procession.
Pahela Baishakh is a symbol of the majesty and legacy of our Bengali culture, making our souls sing in an ecstatic mood. Every year Pahela Baishakh brings us high spirits filled with self-respect and richness. It seems Pahela Baishakh makes itself felt in the rays of the yellowish sun, which steals through the eastern windowpane on the first day of the Bengali Nobo Borsha. It is as if a dancing little girl appears, jingling her anklet bells early in the morning dressed in red and white with flowery hands full of 'mehendi' and feet dyed in red.
The Bengali New Year also means hopes and aspirations for yet a better year, full of joy, happiness and prosperity. The day also marks the opening of a new business year across Bengal. Merchants and business men open new books of accounts, looking forward to a better year of luck, known as "Hal Khata". The day is also spent eating, visiting friends and relations and exchanging gifts. Snacks are syrupy and sugary and dresses are colourful. Everybody is happy taking part in various cultural activities.
Although Pahela Baishakh is customarily coupled with pastoral Bengal, in modern days, we find that the day is celebrated with no less passion and zeal in cities, too. In Dhaka the city people throng on the bank of a river or an old banyan tree and greet the Bengali New Year with songs of Tagore and Nazrul, together with songs of the Bauls.
Residents in the city often start their day with the traditional morning meal of watery rice (Panta Bhat) with the exotic fried Hilsha fish, accompanied by green chillies and onion. While the festival commences with songs at the base of the banyan tree at the Ramna Park, a similar festival moves at the compound of the Institute of Art of the Dhaka University (DU). The streets adjacent to the faculty premises are painted with culture-specific portraits in eye-catching designs and motifs.
The traditional aphorism, "The Bengali has thirteen festivals in twelve months," denotes our past affluent Bengali culture. It falls on April 14 or April 15 of the Gregorian calendar depending on the use of the new amended or old Bengali calendar respectively. In Bangladesh, it is celebrated on April 14 according to the official calendar amended by the Bangla Academy. Everything under the sun looks humming and jovial and vibrant, one is suddenly thumped by the splendour of the grass, the sky, the trees -- each and everything around appears beautiful and glows with excitement.
Pahela Baishakh has been considerably enriched by poets, writers, painters, musicians and educationists. Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore explained Pahela Baishakh as a philosophy of unity in Bengali nationalism. He loved to mention Pahela Baishakh in his many addresses, essays, letters and dramas. They largely denote Tagore's thought of festivals on nature, predominantly celebration of the Bengali New Year. Tagore thinks that the feeling of harmony among Bengalis is the force of festivals of all kinds.
It seems the sleepy sun of 1415 that went down last evening carried along with it all the glooms, all the miseries. Nothing that is aching or tedious or lifeless is left for 1416, and the sun goes up with a new courage, spirit and energy this morning, rises in its full grandeur, glowing nothing dismal, nothing cheerless but only optimism and happiness for the days to move toward. Let us go all-out on each day of 1416 for communal harmony, for protecting the rights of the poor, children and women and for a rich sustainable Bengali Nation.
(The writer is a Faculty Member of National Hotel and Tourism Training Institute, Dhaka, Bangladesh. He can be reached at Email: mohd-s-islam@myway.com)
Days come and go; Pahela Baishakh too, but with a motivating message to keep Bengali nationalism alive. Pahela Baishakh arrives to let us regain the spirit and enthusiasm of Bengali-ness. Pahela Baishakh has been playing a symbolic role for our culture and heritage.
The Bengali-speaking population all over the world eagerly awaits Pahela Baishakh, an exclusive and unique "day" in their lives. There is a noticeable difference in the nature and essence between the Bengali New Year and the English New Year. While the English New Year's day is also comprehensively celebrated across Bangladesh, it merely champions the arrival of yet another year whereas Bengali 'Nobo Borsho' (new year's day) not only celebrates the coming of the New Year but also attests our loyalty to ourselves. Bengali individualism is quite different from the culture and heritage of other nations.
The historical importance of Pahela Baishakh in the Bangladeshi context may be dated back to the observance of the day by Chhayanat in 1965. In an attempt to hold back Bengali culture, the then Pakistani Government had disqualified poems written by Rabindranath Tagore, the pride of Bengali literature. Protesting this move, Chhayanat opened their Pahela Baishakh celebrations at Ramna Park with Tagore songs, welcoming the month. The celebration of the day was continued in the then East Pakistan as a mark of Bengali culture.
After our independence, it became a national festival, a mark of the Bangladesh nationalist movement and a fundamental part of the people's cultural heritage. Later, in the mid-1980s the Institute of Fine Arts added colour to the day by initiating the Pahela Baishakhi procession, which is much like a party victory celebration procession.
Pahela Baishakh is a symbol of the majesty and legacy of our Bengali culture, making our souls sing in an ecstatic mood. Every year Pahela Baishakh brings us high spirits filled with self-respect and richness. It seems Pahela Baishakh makes itself felt in the rays of the yellowish sun, which steals through the eastern windowpane on the first day of the Bengali Nobo Borsha. It is as if a dancing little girl appears, jingling her anklet bells early in the morning dressed in red and white with flowery hands full of 'mehendi' and feet dyed in red.
The Bengali New Year also means hopes and aspirations for yet a better year, full of joy, happiness and prosperity. The day also marks the opening of a new business year across Bengal. Merchants and business men open new books of accounts, looking forward to a better year of luck, known as "Hal Khata". The day is also spent eating, visiting friends and relations and exchanging gifts. Snacks are syrupy and sugary and dresses are colourful. Everybody is happy taking part in various cultural activities.
Although Pahela Baishakh is customarily coupled with pastoral Bengal, in modern days, we find that the day is celebrated with no less passion and zeal in cities, too. In Dhaka the city people throng on the bank of a river or an old banyan tree and greet the Bengali New Year with songs of Tagore and Nazrul, together with songs of the Bauls.
Residents in the city often start their day with the traditional morning meal of watery rice (Panta Bhat) with the exotic fried Hilsha fish, accompanied by green chillies and onion. While the festival commences with songs at the base of the banyan tree at the Ramna Park, a similar festival moves at the compound of the Institute of Art of the Dhaka University (DU). The streets adjacent to the faculty premises are painted with culture-specific portraits in eye-catching designs and motifs.
The traditional aphorism, "The Bengali has thirteen festivals in twelve months," denotes our past affluent Bengali culture. It falls on April 14 or April 15 of the Gregorian calendar depending on the use of the new amended or old Bengali calendar respectively. In Bangladesh, it is celebrated on April 14 according to the official calendar amended by the Bangla Academy. Everything under the sun looks humming and jovial and vibrant, one is suddenly thumped by the splendour of the grass, the sky, the trees -- each and everything around appears beautiful and glows with excitement.
Pahela Baishakh has been considerably enriched by poets, writers, painters, musicians and educationists. Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore explained Pahela Baishakh as a philosophy of unity in Bengali nationalism. He loved to mention Pahela Baishakh in his many addresses, essays, letters and dramas. They largely denote Tagore's thought of festivals on nature, predominantly celebration of the Bengali New Year. Tagore thinks that the feeling of harmony among Bengalis is the force of festivals of all kinds.
It seems the sleepy sun of 1415 that went down last evening carried along with it all the glooms, all the miseries. Nothing that is aching or tedious or lifeless is left for 1416, and the sun goes up with a new courage, spirit and energy this morning, rises in its full grandeur, glowing nothing dismal, nothing cheerless but only optimism and happiness for the days to move toward. Let us go all-out on each day of 1416 for communal harmony, for protecting the rights of the poor, children and women and for a rich sustainable Bengali Nation.
(The writer is a Faculty Member of National Hotel and Tourism Training Institute, Dhaka, Bangladesh. He can be reached at Email: mohd-s-islam@myway.com)