DHAKA, April 14 (Xinhua) -- After two years of muted festivities due to the COVID-19 pandemic, people from all walks of life in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka Thursday participated in a mega colourful procession featuring evocative masks, floats, and motifs of Bangladeshi culture.
The procession greeted Pohela Boishakh, or the first day of the New Year, with renewed hope and good spirits.
Thousands of people wearing traditional costumes joined the procession called the Mangal Shobha Jatra that kicked off from Dhaka University following the conclusion of a flagship curtain-raising cultural event at dawn in the city's park on Thursday.
Students of Dhaka University's Institute of Fine Arts have coordinated the procession to welcome the Bengali New Year.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the procession was cancelled in 2020 and was scaled down last year.
The procession was held under tight security as law enforcers set up security cordons at the front and back.
This year's procession featured five motifs, represented by a large-scale replica of a horse alongside other handcrafted clay figurines and traditional artefacts, all of which were made by Dhaka University students and their teachers.
In Bangladesh, Pohela Boishakh, or the first day of the New Year, is a national holiday. Bengalis usually start the day with the traditional simple breakfast of panta-bhat (leftover rice soaked in water) and fried hilsa fish.
Boishakhi Fairs are organized in many parts of Dhaka and elsewhere in the country. The lifestyle of rural Bengal is showcased in these fairs which also stage traditional folk songs and plays.
Mughal Emperor Akbar introduced the Bengali calendar year and the celebration of Pohela Boishakh, marking the advent of Bengali New Year, is now considered an integral part of Bengali's cultural heritage and tradition.
The Mughal Dynasty ruled most of the Indian subcontinent for about three centuries starting in 1526.
The Bengali New Year coincides with the mid-April New Year in Cambodia and a number of countries in the Indian subcontinent. ■