Bangladeshis are welcoming the Bangla New Year 1423 amid a call to stop social decay and fight religious fanaticism.
The main celebration started with an event organised by the Chhayanaut at the capital’s Ramna Batamul on Thursday morning.
Thousands thronged the Ramna Park and adjacent areas since dawn.
Music befitting the spirit of the New Year filled the air at Ramna Batamul from 6:15am.
Chhayanaut singers started their performance 15 minutes later, calling for a united stand against religious radicalism.
The event ended around 8:35am with the national anthem , in singing which the Chhayanaut singers were joined by the audience.
The main celebrations for ‘Pahela Baishakh’, the Bangla New year, started off with Chhayanaut’s musical event at the capital’s Ramna Park on Thursday morning. Photo: nayan kumar/ bdnews24.com The main celebrations for ‘Pahela Baishakh’, the Bangla New year, started off with Chhayanaut’s musical event at the capital’s Ramna Park on Thursday morning. Photo: nayan kumar/ bdnews24.com The traditional ‘Mangal Shobhajatra’ procession ,. a keyfeature of the New Year celebrations, started from the Dhaka University’s Faculty of Fine Arts at 9am.
Mother-child relationships and fighting social decay were the themes of this year’s procession.
The procession, procession carrying statues and other traditional props, marched throughout Ruposi Bangla Hotel Intersection and Teachers-Student Centre.
Traffic is not allowed in Ramna area and Dhaka University campus during the celebrations.
A year ago on this day, sexual harassments of women marred the Bangla New Year celebrations.
With scores of child murders across the country throughout the year gone by, the celebrations this year were marked by the call for preventing social decay.
The organisers also focussed on fighting religious radicalism amidst increasing attacks of writers, publishers, foreigners and dissidents.
Many are questioning the authorities for imposing restrictions , perhaps prompted by last year’s large scale molestations, on the celebrations this year .
On another note, the celebrations to welcome the New Year have also focussed calls to organise social resistance to prevent murders like that of Comilla college student Sohagi Jahan Tonu .
As Bangladesh looks back with angst and apprehension on the blood and tears shed in 1422, the call for resistance against social evils marks the onset of 1423, summing up the spirit of a nation born in blood and faced with huge problems but whose people never give up.