Poila Baisakh-----Bengali New Year!

Shuvo Nababarsha to you! Getting surprised? Don’t know what this stuff means? Then let me tell you

that it means ‘Happy New Year’ in Bengali. For the Bengalees, new year starts from the first day of

the month Boisakh, which apparently falls on 14th or 15th April every year and we call it Poila

Baisakh, where Poila means one. Tomorrow, we Bengalees are going to celebrate our new year, 1416.

The memory bank of our mobile phones will be flooded with Shuvo Nabarasha wish messages from our

friends and we will keep on replying them tirelessly. It is a great day for the Bengalees, not only

in Kolkata and other parts of India but in Bangladesh and also for those who are inhabitants of

other countries, whom we prefer calling as NRBs (Non Residential Bengalees).

The celebration of Poila Boisakh or Bengali New Year starts from the wee hours of the day at the

Ganga ghat. People, specially the business-class people take holy dip in the Ganga, offer prayers

to the Sun (Surya Devata) and get their new Haal khata (new journal book) marked with Swastik

symbol marked with holy sindur. They seek the blessings of Lord Ganesha and Lord Laxmi, as they are

considered as God’s of wealth and wisdom and start their new financial year. The ritual is a common

practice among people engaged in jewelry business as they seek more profit. In the evening, they

throw parties at their shops and offer sweets with other food and a Bengali calendar to their

customers. Opening an account on the Haal khaata by depositing some amount or by buying some

jewelry is also a part of the Poila Boisakh’s ritual.

As it is a pure Bengali festival, we Bengalees prefer getting into traditional attires on Poila

Boisakh. Women wearing laal paad sharee (white saree with broad red border) with hear untied,

sindurer tip (Sindur bindi) and dazzling jewelries and men wearing dhoti and punjabi is a very

common sight of Poila Boisakh. As we Bengalees are food lovers, the sweet shops in the city witness

huge crowds from the early morning. It is a day that we prefer enjoying with our family members.

Television channels too offer special programs on Poila Boisakh among which the most popular is the

Nababarsher Boithok, which comes on Doordarshan, the national channel.

For young people, Poila Bosiakh is a great day to enjoy with friends and for those who have got

love affairs it is simply a golden opportunity to see their girlfriends wearing sarees. As the

lifestyle of Bengalees people have drastically changed over the last few years, restaurants have

taken over the kitchen-made food, which was a major tradition of Poila Boisakh in the past.

Nowadays, restaurants offer traditional Bengalee foods like shukto, chholar daal, begun vaaja,

machher kalia and chatni on Poila Boisakh, which is a big relief for the housewives.

Being a Kolkata-based company, we at Aslogtech, wish every Bengalee a very Shuvo Nabarsha and wish

the new year will bring all happiness and everything that you desire to get.