Durga Puja

Durga Puja  the most important religious festival of Bengali Hindus, celebrates the return of the goddess to her natal home. In other parts of India as well, Durga is worshipped, but under different names.

The biggest religious festival of the Hindu community in Bangladesh is the festival of Durga Puja. Hindus participate in this festival with great devotion. Durga Puja is an old festival but it is difficult to say with any degree of certainty exactly how old it is.

The oldest manifestation of goddess Durga, who slew the Mahisasura, belonged to the fifteenth century AD. A series of festivals, centering on Durga Puja, is held in Bangladesh. Usually, on the sixth lunar day of the bright fortnight in the Bengali month of Ashwin, the ceremonial awakening of the goddess Durga takes place. Thereafter, Puja is performed for three days on the seventh, eighth and ninth and the immersion of the image of the goddess Durga (with her companions) takes place on the tenth day. People exchange greetings during a period of fifteen days after the immersion of the image of the deity.

Pohela Boishakh

The advent of Bengali New Year is gaily observed throughout the country. The Day (mid-April) is a public holiday. Most colorful daylong gatherings along with arrangement of cultural program and traditional Panta at Ramna Park, Dhaka is a special feature of Pahela Baishakh. Tournaments, boat races etc. are held in cities and villages amidst great jubilation. Many fairs are held in Dhaka and other towns and villages.

New Year’s festivities are closely linked with rural life in Bengal. Usually on Pohela Boishakh, the home is thoroughly scrubbed and cleaned; people bathe early in the morning and dress in fine clothes. They spend much of the day visiting relatives, friends, and neighbors. Special foods are prepared to entertain guests. This is one rural festival that has become enormously big in the cities, especially in Dhaka.

Various agricultural products, traditional handicrafts, toys, cosmetics, as well as various kinds of food and sweets are sold at these fairs. The fairs also provide entertainment, with singers and dancers staging jatra (traditional plays), pala gan, kobigan, jarigan, gambhira gan, gazir gan and alkapgan. They present folk songs as well as baul, marfati, murshidi and bhatiali songs. Narrative plays like Laila-Majnu, Yusuf-Zulekha and Radha-Krishna are staged. Among other attractions of these fairs are puppet shows and merry-go-rounds.

Ekushey Boi Mela..a book fair of Bengali’s

Ekushey Boi Mela is a book fair held every year on the Bangla Academy premises in the city, commemorating the martyrs of the historic Language Movement, with a record number of institutions taking part, the book fair this year (2009)  had special visiting hours for women and children.

The fair this year was more organized and lively with the participation of readers, writers and publishing houses alike. A total of 436 stalls had been allocated to 297 institutions and publishing houses this year, with expanded accommodation facilities spilling over the precincts of the academy.

The fair will remained open for all from 3:00pm to 9:00pm on working days and from 11:00am to 9:00pm on weekends. On February 21, the International Mother Language Day, the fair remained open from 8:00 in the morning till 10:00pm.

Valentines Day…Celebration of love

The day comes after Pohela Falfun is Valentines Day (14th February) that is specially devoted for lover all around the world. Like other places across the world, valentines day is celebrated in Dhaka as well. Before the clock strikes 12.00 people starts to wish or text their love one’s. They express how much they mean for each other and how sweet was their journey of love till now. Couples roam around and attend different kind of program in different parts of Dhaka. Not only youth but people of all ages celebrates this event. They go to concerts, cultural shows, movies and park etc. The resturants and lounges are over crowded during this day. Some couples prefer to have ice-cream together in Club Gelleto in Banani or Movenpick in Gulshan. Maximum number of flowers are sold in Valentines Day. People buy flowers to his boyfriend or girlfriend as a token of love. Couples can’t imagine V-day without flowers. Without flowers its like a body without a soul. Buying present is another big concern for couples. The reputed gift shops like Hallmark and Archies  are fullpacked during valentines week. Those couples who would like to catch for a romantic candle night dinner in a claassy place can go to radission and have quality time. Apart from doing all these activities, one can listen ever lasting love songs of different artists such as Bryan Adams(Everything i do), John Denver(Anney ’s Song), Rod Stewart (have i told u lately), Goo Goo Dolls (Iris) and so on.

Pohela Falgun..a change of season

As winter departed. Falgun (Bangla month of spring) occurs with joy and colors in nature as well as among the people of Bangladesh. “Pohela Falgun” 1st day of spring in Bangla calender (13th Feb). Moreover, it is a significant festival of Bengali culture. The celebration requires no place because every single Bengali embraces Falgun in their heart and soul. Bengali expresses their joy by doing some practises.

On the occasion, girls are dressed in bashonti (yellow or orange) coloured saree and flowers in hair while boys wear colorful pajama and panjabi to welcome the arrival of spring.

The center point of this festivity is “Bakul-tola” of the Institute of Fine Arts (Commonly known as Charukola) of Dhaka University. The jingle of the celebration is “Esho mili praner utshabe” (Come, let us celebrate life together). Jatiya Boshonto Utshab Udjapan Parishad arranges the main celebration program of the day for over a decade. The celebration usually begins at around 7am in the morning. Thousands of young men and women gather in the morning and celebrate the day with signing songs, reciting poems and dancing. At around 10:00am a rally starts from Bokul-tola, it revolves round the TSC and later ends at Charukola.

The entire Dhaka University Campus and the Ekeushy Boi-mela becomes the best place to hang out with friends, family members and beloved ones.

Dhaka International Trade Fair (DITF) 2009

DITF an event held once in a year. Thousands of people come from all over Bangladesh to purchase different goods of domestic and foreign products at one place. The 14th Dhaka International Trade Fair (DITF) kicked off on Thursday in Bangladesh’s capital city Dhaka to showcase local and foreign products to boost trade between Bangladesh and other countries. The month long grand annual fair, jointly organized by the Bangladesh’s Ministry of Commerce and Export Promotion Bureau (EPB), also aimed to introduce the country’s local traders with foreign cutting edge technologies. Organizations from both Bangladesh and 13 other countries including China, India and Japan took part in the fair.

It showcased a wide range of local and foreign products, including machinery and equipment, agriculture and gardening materials, carpets, chemicals and allied products, cosmetics, dairy products, electrical and electronic items. Dhaka International Trade Fair (DITF) 2009 concluded Saturday with the country’s manufacturers receiving export orders worth about Tk 210 million