Bengali people from every walk of life are set to celebrate and welcome the Pahela Falgun, the first day of the Spring in the Bengali month of Falgun today (Tuesday) with traditional fanfare and festivity.
Besides, many people, mostly young men and women across the country, also get excited and overwhelmed by the pressures of Valentine’s Day today and everyone has their own plan to celebrate the day with their special someone.
In the last two years, the Covid-19 pandemic forced the nation to avoid any kind of public gatherings or extravaganza centering the Pahela Falgun and Valentine’s Day celebrations.
So, people will be greeting the rising sun of the bold Spring this year as they want a fresh start after the two-year deadlock of celebration.
Commemorating the sacrifices of those who laid down their lives on 21 February 1952 for establishing Bengali as the mother tongue, the month-long ‘Amar Ekushey Book Fair-2023’ has been going on since February 1 on the premises of the Bangla Academy and the Suhrawardy Udyan adjacent to the Dhaka University campus in the capital city.
As a result, the Pahela Falgun and Valentine’s Day will add extra colour and flavour to the book fair, turning the entire area into a human sea today.
Greeting the rising sun of the bold Spring, people in the country also want a fresh start.
On Monday they bade farewell to the outgoing month of Magh with a fresh hope that a new sun will rise that will take away all sorrows, pains, and fears from the country and world as well after the dryness of winter.
With the ray of new sunshine, the country will again get back its fresh shape that will touch and encourage people to go ahead after the dark chapter of Covid-19 pandemic.
The Pahela Falgun is an integral part of Bengali culture.
Therefore, the Bangalis have been celebrating the Pahela Falgun as a universal and non-communal festival for a long period of time.
Shedding the past’s glooms to oblivion, they believe this day will bring the strength to the national life to uphold the rich cultural values and rituals of the Bengalis.
So, the Bengalis will start the first day of Pahela Falgun with the hope of progress in life forgetting all shortcomings and sorrows.
And new leaves will start coming out again and nature will be adorning the branches with new colorful flowers such as Krishnachura, Shimul, Polash and Marigold.
Besides, nature’s everything gives an impression of youthfulness and freshness as well, signaling the arrival of spring.
Colorful flowers, silky breeze, the melody of birds and mild touch of the sunshine - everything is making people feel that springtime is nature’s festival as it takes a new birth again.
Bengali people always love and enjoy the aroma of flowers.
Since 2020 Pahela Falgun is coinciding with Valentine’s Day on 14 February which has also become a major day in celebration of the festival-loving Bengalis especially the young.
In 2019, Bangla Academy revised the Bengali Calendar to match it with the Gregorian calendar aimed at observing the significant days in line with the historic background.
Therefore, the day is very special to the youths who wearing colorful panjabees, yellow clothes, flower-made ornaments and other traditional dresses will greet each other conveying their love, passion and best wishes.
Besides, as it is also a festival of romantic love, many young women and men will exchange roses, greeting cards, letters and other attractive gifts with one another to win hearts marking Valentine’s Day.
Apart from capital Dhaka, people living in all metropolitan cities, district towns, upazila headquarters and even villages across the country will also celebrate the day with great joys and love, and in a colourful manner.
On this special occasion, they also wish that this fresh month and Valentine’s Day will be a blissful one that will be bringing new hopes, opportunities and joy.
After all the odds, diseases, frustration and darkness, people are confident that fresh lives start to come out again as spring arrives with blossoms of flowers and new leaves in trees.
Nature is getting a fresh and colorful shape that touches the hearts and minds of all ages of people, and the spring wind will also blow away all sorrows, diseases and darkness.
The spring has been depicted as the king of all seasons in poetry for its extraordinary beauty of nature.
As the spring has sprung, the days are getting longer, the weather is getting warmer, and the birds are getting louder.
The most romanticised bird in literature, the cuckoo’s songs also add a fresh message to the blossom of flowers, new leaves in trees, a breath of fresh air, new feelings, love and emotions.
Wearing red and white dresses, symbol of Valentine day, young men and women will pass the whole day from morning to night with their loved ones in Dhaka University campus, Suhrawardy Udyan, Ramna Park and other open spaces in the city.
Famous excerpt of Subhash Mukhopadhyay “Phul phutuk na phutuk, aaj Boshonto” beautifully depicts the advent of Basanta Utsab.
“O Wind, If Winter comes, can spring be far behind?” English romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley described the arrival of spring in his famous poem ‘Ode to the West Wind’.
In his another poem he wrote: “And the spring arose on the garden fair/Like the Spirit of Love felt everywhere, And each flower and herb on Earth’s dark breast/Rose from the dreams of its wintry rest”.
