Editorial
The sequel to Noboborsha
Let it be a new dawn
Wishing our patrons and readers Shovo Noboborsha, later than Pahela Baishakh, has its advantage. It enriches the greetings with the knowledge of the day seen, felt and lived to the core with its many-hued cultural representations.
Baishakh ushers in the new, the fresh and the youthful in the renewal of our commitments towards productivity, creativity, rejuvenation and unity of purpose and pursuit of collective advancement.
Year to year, there has been a spate in the cultural surge and participatory enthusiasm centring around Bangla new year. But the sheer scale of this year's Noboborsha observances with their suffusion of colour, depth of folk traditions, diversity of performing arts, revisiting our roots and placing ourselves in the contemporary context surpasses anything we have known before. The sprightly participation of the various ethnic communities itself bore testimony to the universal appeal of Pahela Baishakh.
It's truly a secular, non-communal and inclusive occasion both in the manner of its origin -- during Mughal Emperor Akbar linking it to harvest and revenue collection -- as well as its evolution as an embodiment of cultural expressions. This only flourished after the birth of Bangladesh. The more some detractors tried to profile it with a touch communal implication, the more reinforced its appeal got in the minds of the people.
In purely material terms, festivities related to Bangla new year contribute to both urban and rural economies. Various crafts are rejuvenated with handicraft making a hey as textiles, masks, flutes, assorted gift items, art pieces, paintings are put on sale. The transformation in fashions and designs that takes place in the prelude to Pahela Baishakh has a value added effect to the growth of fashion industry. Many new musical CDs hit the market. By one estimate, Pahela Baishakh alone registers 15 percent growth in business.
For a day at least, the dawn of Bangla year marks a confluence of humanity transcending political, economic and rural-urban divides. But it is of paramount importance that the essence of the day is upheld and lived up to beyond the day, and even the season into the whole year.
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