Pahela Baishakh today

The Bangalees will celebrate Pahela Baishakh, the first day of Bangla New Year and one of the biggest universal festivals of the nation, Tuesday on virtual media and using digital method staying at their respective homes as the government has urged all citizens to do so in the wake of the deadly coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak.

Pahela Baishakh is one of the most colourful festivals through which the Bangalis bid farewell to the old year and welcome the New Year, but this year all programmes have been cancelled due to Covid-19 outbreak that has already claimed 39 lives in Bangladesh and nearly 1,15,000 across the globe.

The government gave directives to all to celebrate the festival in digital method to avoid public gatherings.

As per the government directives, state-run Bangladesh Television (Btv) will broadcast a special programme having contents of Chhayanat’s previous year’s celebration welcoming the advent of Bangla New Year at Ramna Batamul at dawn, Btv sources said.

Besides, recorded traditional songs and dance performances of leading artistes will also be aired.

Chhayanat president Sanjida Khatun’s recorded message will be aired.

A 58-minute programme of the cultural affairs ministry will also be aired from 8.30am on Bangladesh Television while all private channels will also relay it.

On this special occasion, people from all walks of life generally wear traditional Bengali dresses. Young women wear white sarees with red borders and adorn themselves with bangles, flowers, and tips, while men wear white pyjamas and panjabi or kurta.

But this time, the citizens will celebrate the festival at their respective homes.

Traditional Mongol Shovajatra will not be brought out this year from Fine Arts Faculty on the Dhaka University which becomes the main symbolic programme of the celebration as the authorities have cancelled it.

Business communities, especially in the rural areas, generally open their traditional ‘Halkhata’, new account books on that day while traders also offer sweets to customers.

President Abdul Hamid and prime minister Sheikh Hasina issued separate messages greeting the countrymen on the occasion of Pahela Baishakh.

They urged all to celebrate the Bangla New Year in digital method staying at homes to avoid public gatherings.

They wished peace, happiness and prosperity of the people and the country in the New Year.

Different government and non-government organisations, socio-cultural platforms, including Bangladesh Shilpokala Academy, Bangladesh Shishu Academy, Bangla Academy, Department of Public Libraries, the National Museum, Kabi Nazrul Institute, Copyright Office, National Book Centre, Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC), Dhaka University, Jatiya Press Club and Dhaka Reporters Unity, generally chalk out various programmesto observe the Pahela Baishakh but this time no programme will be arranged.

The programmes of the day generally begin in the city with the musical soiree of Chhayanat, a leading cultural organisation of the country, at Ramna Batamul at dawn.

The city people start the day with the traditional breakfast of ‘panta bhat’ (soaked rice), green chilli, onion and fried fish at Ramna Park, Suhrawardy Uddyan, Dhaka University Campus, Rabindra Sarobor at Dhanmondi and other amusement places.

Important buildings and establishments as well as city streets and islands are generally illuminated with colourful lights and graffiti painted on the walls signifying the arts, culture and heritage of the country.

Improved food items will be distributed among jail inmates, patients in hospitals and orphanages on the occasion.

The day is a public holiday.

Different national dailies will publish colourful supplements highlighting the significance of Pahela Baishakh.

Some historians attribute the Bengali calendar to the 7th century king Shashanka, which was later modified by Mughal emperor Akbar for the purpose of tax collection.

During the Mughal rule, land taxes were collected from Bengali people according to the Islamic Hijri calendar. This calendar was a lunar calendar, and its new year did not coincide with the solar agricultural cycles.

Akbar asked the royal astronomer Fathullah Shirazi to create a new calendar by combining the lunar Islamic calendar and solar Hindu calendar already in use, and this was known as Fasholi shan (harvest calendar).