Poila Boishakh 1429: Bengalis across India and abroad celebrate the first day of the Bengali calendar with much fanfare. New clothes, a trip to the temple, phone calls to near and dear ones staying in different parts of the world are a must, and the day is incomplete without cultural evenings and grand feasts complete with traditional Bengali fares.
The new year date in Bengal is fixed according to the lunisolar calendar, which enters the year 1429 this year.
It’s a big day for the business community in Bengal. They begin the new year with prayers to God, as they seek blessings for the new account books, which they open on this day. The ledger books are locally known as haal khata or kheror khata, a traditional hand-bound bunch of white sheets with red cloth cover — something like bahi-khata.
This year, Indian Bengalis will celebrate Poila Boishakh on April 15.
Incidentally, Good Friday is coinciding with the day, and so is Kerala festival Vishu.
Unlike Vikram Samvat, which begins with the month of Chaitra, the Bangla calendar starts with Boishakh or Baisakh, coinciding with the harvest season.
Poila Boishakh, also called Pohela Boishakh, is a big day in Bangladesh too. A procession marks the day every year in the country.
Bangladesh, however, has a fixed date for the Bengali new year’s day, and it’s April 14. The country uses a modified form of the traditional Bengali calendar, which it changed to make it more precise, on the lines of the Gregorian calendar.
Ever since Bangladesh revised the calendar, the new year or Poila Boishakh always falls on April 14. The date, however, varies between April 14 and 15 in West Bengal, which follows the traditional calendar that is interwined with Hindu religious festivals.