This year’s Pahela Baishakh celebrations held special meaning

It is essential to understand how rural communities establish their cultural relationships with the ecosystems across different seasons.

Gang culture, partisan politics, and hapless youth cannot be part of the algorithm needed for a Smart Bangladesh.

Chaitra Sankranti is more than a 100-year-old celebration of marking the last day of the Bangla New Year. Although the festival is mostly observed in rural parts of the country, in recent years it has also been adopted into the urban lifestyle.

For the very first time in its history, the National Board of Revenue (NBR) is going to offer sweets to the tax payers marking Chaitra Sankranti – the end of the last month of the Bangla Year. In line with Bangla tradition, NBR will also celebrate Halkhata on Pahela Baishakh, the first day of Bangla New Year.

The busy urban living does not allow us to perform many of our rituals, festivities and practices the way our families observed them over the years. One such ritual is Chaitra Sankranti celebration.

Chaitra Sankranti is an age-old festival of rural Bangla which marks the last day of a Bangla year. The Bangla calendar is solar, with the year beginning on Pahela Baishakh.