Pahela Baishakh or Paila Baishakh (1st day of Baishakh, the first month of Bengali calendar) is the first day of Bangabd, the Bengali New Year. The day is the traditional New Year's day of all Bengali people. The day is celebrated with special festivities as New Year in Bangladesh and West Bengal, India. Bengalis living in Tripura also participate in this festival. Pahela Boishakh is celebrated as a national festival in Bangladesh. As such it is considered as a universal folk festival of Bengalis. Pahela Baisakh celebrations were started by the Muslim Mahifras community of Old Dhaka.
According to the Gregorian calendar, this festival is celebrated on April 14 every year in Bangladesh. This day is fixed according to the modern Bengali calendar prescribed by Bangla Academy. In West Bengal, Pahela Baisakh is celebrated on 15th April according to the Chandrasaur Bengali calendar. The day is also observed as a public holiday in Bangladesh and West Bengal. Businessmen of various levels take the day as an opportunity to start a new business.
This festival is celebrated with various activities such as processions, fairs, pantabhat eating, Halkhata opening etc. The traditional Bengali New Year greeting is “Shubh Navbarsh”. Mars procession is organized in Bangladesh during New Year. In 2016, UNESCO declared the festival procession organized by Dhaka University as "Invaluable Cultural Heritage of Humanity".
The basic difference between Hijri and Christian calendar with Bengali calendar is that Hijri year is determined according to moon and Christian year according to international standards. For this reason, the new date in the Hijri year begins after the new moon is visible in the evening sky and the new day in the Christian year begins according to UTC. There is a difference of opinion about the first Baishakh starting from sunrise instead of 12:00 p.m., although there is a tradition of counting Bengali days from sunrise, the Bangla Academy canceled this rule from 1st Baishakh of 1402 B.A. and started counting days at 12:00 p.m. to be in line with international norms. by doing
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