CHARUKALA GEARS UP FOR PAHELA BAISHAKH

The time-honoured Bengali spirit of festivity and frolic is renewed again to welcome the Bangla New Year 1424. Pahela Baishakh is just around the corner and there are preparations galore to celebrate the country's largest secular festivity.

Every Baishakh -- the first month of the Bangla calendar, people wish to shake off the previous year's gloom and prepare to usher in the New Year with renewed vigour. Baishakh brings with it a whole new flurry of festivities and celebrations, the biggest of which are Chhayanaut's Borshoboron and Charukala's Mongol Shobhajatra.

To hail the Bangla New Year, Faculty of Fine Art (FFA), University of Dhaka has been organising Mongol Shobhajatra, a unique celebratory procession of hailing Bangla New Year, from the Bangla year 1396 (1989 AD). The Mongol Shobhajatra was recently declared as the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by Inter Governmental Committee of ICH, UNESCO. This year the achievement will be relished in jubilance.

The Mongol Shobhajatra has become an integral part of Pahela Baishakh. Every year, the procession centres on a theme relevant to the country's culture, politics, heritage and achievement. The theme for this year's carnival is “Anandalok-e Mogolalok-e Birajo Satya Sundaro”, an excerpt from a Tagore song.

Artists are busy working on huge bamboo frames of the motifs that will be among the main attractions of this year's Mongol Shobhajatra.

The 18th and 19th batches of FFA are behind the wheel of this year's Pahela Baishakh celebrations. Enthusiastic preparations are on at the FFA to celebrate the festival, with work already underway in creating papier-mâché and masks. Students, teachers and alumni are busy working on the watercolour paintings, pottery, traditional dolls, decorated pots, lokkhishora and more at the faculty premises.

An art camp participated by the prominent artists of the country is also on at FFA. Art lovers can buy these art pieces at reasonable prices and become a part of this Intangible Cultural Heritage for Humanity, as well as support the organisation of the Mongol Shobhajatra.

Apart from Pahela Baishakh celebrations, a traditional jatrapala will be staged at FFA premises on April 15.

Leading cultural organisation and school Chhayanaut has been welcoming Pahela Baishakh at Ramna's Botomul since 1967. It has become an essential feature of the Bangla New Year celebrations.

People from all walks of life will contribute to make this day a special beginning. There are those who work hard to bring out the festivities and it's up to the rest of the people to make it worth all the effort, by buying the artworks and visiting and participating in them with open hearts.