[lifeStyle] Pohela Boishakh 2021: Bengali New Year date, history, importance and significance

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Bengali New Year (Pohela Boishakh) 2021 Date: Poila Boishakh, also known as Bangla Noboborsho, is the first day of the Bengali calendar and celebrated as new year’s day. It usually falls on April 14 or 15 every year, set according to the lunisolar Bengali calendar as the first day of the first-month Boishakh. This year, the festival will be celebrated by Bengalis in West Bengal, Tripura and Assam on April 15. The tradition of Poila Boishakh goes back to the Mughal era. It is believed that the tradition was introduced in Bengal during the time of emperor Akbar to time the tax year to the harvest. Akbar had asked royal astronomer Fathullah Shirazi to create a new calendar combining the lunar Islamic calendar and solar Hindu calendar already in use. Bangladeshi academic and folklorist Shamsuzzaman Khan, however, traced it back to Nawab Murshid Quli Khan, a Mughal governor, who used the tradition as a day for ceremonial land tax collection. In rural Bengali Hindu communities, the Bengali calendar is credited to emperor Vikramaditya. Also Read |Shubho Nobo Borsho: How the Bengali community rings in the New Year Today, the festival is celebrated by Bengalis by buying new clothes and feasting on traditional delicacies. People exchange greetings and also attend processions. The traditional greeting for the day is “Shubho Noboborsho” which means “Happy New Year”.