Happy Bengali New Year! (Shubho Nobo Borsho)- not that we go ever by that calender anywhere, but its one of my favourite Bengali festivities. The dressing up in red-white sarees(my favourite kind of sarees), the music (Tagore), the fairs, the food.....did I mention the food? I never got to experience it in Bangladesh, but the festivities organized in Kuwait were not to bad :D We even got to order special white flowers to put in our hair.
Looking forward my first attendance of Chhayanat performance in Canada on saturday.

Bit of history: Bengali year was started in the Mughal times to coincide with the harvest as well as the Arabic year, but became a symbol of so much more when, along with Tagore, its celebration was banned in East Pakistan after its conception-for religious purposes probably, as Tagore is not a Muslim. Now banning Tagore for Bengali's is like putting a ban on breathing. You just don't do that. The celebrations continued till after Bangladesh became independent and has become a tradition spanning half a century now.
New Year celebrations had to take a temporary blow with the terrorist attack on the festivities a few years back. Something about that event makes me think all the terrorist operations happening in Bangladesh have outside influence (possibly Arab) , as NO Bengali, no matter the religious background, would look at this celebration as something remotely religious. But try explaing that to someone from the middle-east- to them everything is 'Hindi'.

Oh and Happy Baisakhi (spring) for those who celebrate that.......and it feels like spring too for once.
yey.