Poila Baiskah

Bengali New Year is known as Naba Barsha that is celebrated on the thirteenth or fourteenth of April. Naba Barsha falls in the month of Baisakh and the first day of Baisakh is the Naba Barsha according to the Bengali calendar. The festival is celebrated as a National holiday.

Bengalis celebrate this festival with great enthusiasm and participate in several activities to enjoy the festival. People sing songs, perform dances, play games and attend cultural programmes to celebrate the festival in the best way and start a new beginning with full zeal.

TTo welcome this festival with open arms Bengalis start cleaning their places and designs are made on floors and outside the doorway with flour and rice to welcome the New Year. In the middle of the design there is a pot made up of mud and a swastika sign of red and white color. Pot has Mango leaves and pious water inside it that is considered to be a symbol of prosperity.

Bengalis conduct a tradition of Prabhat Pheri in the morning to welcome the festival of Naba Barsha in which women are dressed in white sarees with red border and men wear kurta and dhoti.

For all the shopkeepers this festival is a perfect time to buy new account books and start with Haalkhata that means new account. People visit religious places to remember God and pray for a bountiful year ahead.