People carrying masks and different animal floats down a street during celebrations on Pohela Boishakh, the first day of the Bengali New Year, in Dhaka yesterday.
IANS/Dhaka
Bangladesh celebrated Bengali New Year 1421 yesterday by combining traditional and modern practices.
"We've seen one of the biggest concentrations of shoppers this weekend as customers rush to shopping malls to buy new clothes and other items," Selim Reza, a salesman of Aarong, Bangladesh's leading fashion and lifestyle brand, told Xinhua.
Over the weekend, city residents have been swarming to shopping malls and marketplaces causing a huge traffic gridlock in major roads in the city.
The city's fashion houses and boutiques were abuzz with shoppers who bought traditional dresses not only for their families but also for their relatives and friends, a traditional activity during the celebration of "Poila Baishakh" or Bengali New Year.
"I've already purchased dresses for me and my relatives," a shopper said. "Now I would buy some pieces of jewellery to match my new dress."
Most residents were dressed in traditional costumes such as the saaree.
During the New Year, Bengalis usually start the day with the traditional simple breakfast of panta-bhat (leftover rice soaked in water) and fried hilsa fish.
Many were also seen busy buying cakes, sweets and fruits "to sweeten the mood" during the celebration.
Boishakhi fairs are organised in many parts of Dhaka and elsewhere in the country. The lifestyle of rural Bengal is showcased in almost all these fairs which also stage traditional folk songs and plays.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina greeted the war-wounded freedom fighters through sending sweetmeats and fruits to them on the occasion of Poila Baishakh.
On behalf of the prime minister, her assistant private secretary Saifuzzaman Shikhor and deputy press secretary Ashraful Alam Khokan handed over the sweetmeats and fruits to the state-allowance recipients war-wounded freedom fighters at the Freedom Fighters' Rehabilitation Centre in city's Mohammadpur area yesterday, reported BSS.
In response, the freedom fighters extended their heartfelt thanks and gratitude to the prime minister for remembering them in every festival.
Mughal Emperor Akbar introduced the Bangla calendar year and the celebration of Poila Baishakh, marking the advent of Bengali New Year, which is now considered as an integral part of the Bengali's cultural heritage and tradition.
The Bengali New Year coincides with the mid-April New Year in India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand, apart from Cambodia.
