How Bengalis Celebrate the New Year

Bengali new year

Rifat Jamil Eusufzai/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY 4.0 

The Bengali New Year celebration is popularly known as Poila Baisakh (Bengali poila = first, Baisakh = the first month of the Bengali Calendar). It's the first day of the Bengali New Year, which usually falls in mid-April every year.

Traditional 'Naba Barsho' Celebrations

The years known as 2017 and 2018 is the year 1424 by the Bengali calendar, and Bengalis are quickly forgetting the traditional old traditional ways of celebrating the 'Naba Barsho' (Bengali naba = new, barsho = year). However, people still wear new clothes, exchange sweets, and pleasantries with friends and acquaintances. Younger people touch the feet of elders and seek their blessings for the coming year. There's also a custom of wearing gem-studded rings to appease the stars and planets! Near and dear ones send gifts and greeting cards to one another other. These gifts are often handmade and based on local themes, but they may also be costly gifts from international brands, like Hallmark or Archies Greetings. Free Bengali New Year greetings e-cards are also available online.

Panjika, the Bengali Almanac!

As the year draws to a close, Bengalis throng to the bookstall to book a copy of Panjika, the Bengali almanac. It's a rather fat year-long handbook to help you find festival timings, favorable days, auspicious dates for everything from weddings to housewarmings, from starting a journey to launching a business and more.

Panjika publishing is a big business in Kolkata, with Gupta Press, PM Bagchi, Benimadhab Seal, and Rajendra Library vying with each other for their share of the Bangla Almanac pie. The Panjika comes in several sizes—directory, full, half and pocket. Panjikas have come of age by including modern content, such as phone numbers for hospitals, doctors and police stations, and religious festival timings for people abroad in Bangladesh, the US, and the UK—all in local time. This makes them in very high demand for the Bengali diaspora. Although the English calendar has gained precedence over the Bengali Calendar over the years, almost all events in rural Bengal takes place according to the Bengali calendar.

Baisakh also ushers in the beginning of the new agricultural season in Bengal.

Bengali Year-End Fairs

Hindus throughout Bengal celebrate the year-end or 'Chaitra Sankranti' with some exciting fairs and festivals, such as Gajan and Charak. Traditional Charak Mela, which includes some extreme spiritual acrobatics, is held in small and big towns in West Bengal, culminating in Latu Babu-Chhatu Babur Bazar in North Kolkata on the last day of the year, and a day later at Konnagar, the location of Bengal's only 'Basi Charaker Mela'.

Haal Khata for Traders in Bengal

For Bengali traders and shop owners, Poila Baisakh is Haal Khata time—an auspicious day to 'open' the ledger. Ganesh and Lakshmi Puja are solemnized in almost all shops and business centers, and regular customers are formally invited to attend the evening party. To consumers, it may not always be something to look forward to, for Haal Khata also means settling of all outstanding debts of the preceding year.

Bengali New Year Cuisine

The Bengali penchant for enjoying good food comes through best on Poila Baisakh. Household kitchens exude the aroma of freshly prepared Bengali delicacies, especially sweet dishes because it's thought to be a good omen to start the year with mishtanna, or traditional sweets such as Rosogollas, Payesh, Sandesh, Kalakand, and Ras Malai. The New Year cuisine for lunch, of course, contains various preparations of fish and rice. Those who prefer to go out to eateries enjoy a variety of delights for the palate.

Poila Boishakh Celebrations in India and Bangladesh

There is a subtle difference between the way Bangladesh and West Bengal ring in the New Year. Although Poila Baisakh is very much a part of the Hindu calendar, 'Naba Barsho' is a national festival for the Islamic State of Bangladesh, and a distinctly greater exuberance marks the festivities in this part of Bengal. While it's Poila Boishakh in West Bengal, the celebration is known as 'Pahela Baisakh' in Bangladesh. It's a public holiday in Kolkata, but in Dhaka, even newspaper offices remain closed for the Bengali New Year.

One thing that's common to both sides of the border is ushering in the New Year with Rabindra Sangeet or Tagore's musical invocation, Esho Hey Baisakh Esho Esho (Come Baisakh, Come O Come!), or the relatively obscure composition Aaj Ranashaje Bajiye Bishan Esheche Esheche Baisakh.

Dhaka residents start early at daybreak with public celebrations of Poila Baisakh at the Ramna Maidan. Most Kolkatans prefer to celebrate it with music and dance. Kolkata's film town, Tollygunge, celebrates the New Year with the auspicious mahurat functions of Bengali movies, a traditional part of Poila Baisakh at Tollywood, Bengal's center of filmmaking. The city hosts several special programs on the occasion, with notable crowds attracted to Nandan, the Calcutta Town Hall, New Market, and the Maidan.

Don't forget to wish your Bengali friends "Shubho Naba Barsho!" (Happy New Year!) on Poila Boishakh, mid-April every year.

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Das, Subhamoy. "How Bengalis Celebrate the New Year." Learn Religions, Sep. 11, 2021, learnreligions.com/poila-baisakh-bengali-new-year-1770201. Das, Subhamoy. (2021, September 11). How Bengalis Celebrate the New Year. Retrieved from https://www.learnreligions.com/poila-baisakh-bengali-new-year-1770201 Das, Subhamoy. "How Bengalis Celebrate the New Year." Learn Religions. https://www.learnreligions.com/poila-baisakh-bengali-new-year-1770201 (accessed March 29, 2024).