Pohela Falgun
Bangladesh is the country of six seasons and Spring is the last of them. With new leaves in the trees, various known and unknown colorful flowers, and the coos of cuckoos, the spring comes to Bangladesh. ‘Pohela Falgun’ is the first day of spring and eleventh month in the Bengali Calendar. Falgun announces the coming of Spring with its glamorous color. The festival lover Bengalis welcome and celebrate this day with great respect, love and in a colorful manner. |
Pohela Boishakh
Pohela Boishakh is the first day of Bengali New Year. It is celebrated in Bangladesh, west Bengal, Assam, Tripura and also the whole world. It coincides with the Bengali New Year's Days of numerous Southern Asian calendars. It connects all ethnic Bengalis irrespective of religious and regional differences.
Red, white and yellow are the official ‘Pokela Boishak’ colors. Women wear white saris with red borders, big red teeps (bindis) and fresh flowers in their hair and men wear white dhotis, kurtas or pyjamas. Pohela Boishakh is definitely a big fashion event in large cities like Dhaka and Calcutta. It’s customary to start the day with pantha bhath, (cooked rice soaked with water), green chillies, onion, and fried eelish (hilsa) fish. And of course tons of sweets throughout the day! Rabridranath Tagore’ song ‘Esho he Boishakh’ is most popularly sung or performed to via classical dance performance to celebrate the new year. |
Sangrai Festival
The biggest festival of the Marma tribesmen, akin to Boisabi of the Tripuris and Biju of the Chakmas. In mid-April, this celebration of the new year falls around the same time as Bengali Naba Barsha and Assamese Bihu. Apart frm the songs and dances Sangrai is marked by the water festival and magic charm competitions. Water festival is a game of splashing water from two sides of a marked arena by unmarried boys and girls on each other. It is said that splashing water is a way of declaring a love interest. Non-Marma people can't usually take part in the game.
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