The term ‘Pohela Boishakh’ is a Bangla expression that means the first day of the New Year. Being the first day of the Bengali calendar, this day marks the New Year celebrations for Bengalis when the entire Bangla speaking community joins together to organise vibrant celebrations forgetting the differences of caste, creed and religion altogether. In Bangladesh, it is a national holiday. This is a big cultural festival that has managed to survive even after several centuries. Due to the way it is organised, this festival has a more cultural and social dimension to it.
To start afresh and bid goodbye to the old year, the British Council in partnership with Mr Noodles (a product of PRAN) hosted a Bangla New Year celebration event on 13 April 2017 at the British Council, Dhaka University campus office. A fair followed by fun games and a cultural programme was organised.
Students from our Library partner schools in Dhaka city joined the fair with various products including crafts and paintings. There were 15 stalls which were allotted to the library partner schools students. The fair started at 12 pm in the noon and continued till 7 pm in the evening. The fair was open for all. Visitors joined the fair with their near and dear ones and enjoyed day long fun games like shooting balloon games, destiny parrots and clicked nice photos in the photo booth. There was also a henna corner for the visitors.
“These activities encourage creativity and encourage the natural curiosity among kids. Children can explore their individual talents and feel greater confidence as they discover their abilities. It is an opportunity for kids to learn social skills like cooperation, negotiation and conflict resolution. They learn how to think on their feet and develop better communication skills while discovering new things they enjoy and can excel at”, said the Principal, Kakoli High School and College, Dhaka. All the visitors and participants of the event are looking forward to having such events in future.
