Today’s world is the manifestation of nurturing multicultural global village where festivals are no longer confined within a particular community; it has become a unique phenomenon, a varied combination of mingling flavour of different traditional and cultural diversity as well. With the alteration of communal and financial arrangement the environment of festivals are changing every now and then and so, festivals are now universal to all of us. Here, celebration of Happy New Year is one of them which is no longer the possession of a group of certain people only; it has now become the festival of the world’s people as it does not think about a particular state’s tradition, its cultural value, its religion and a social phenomenon. The New Year celebrations: Bangladesh perspective
Everything wears a festive look with the magical touch of New Year arrival in Bangladesh
Rana Dutta
Todays world is the manifestation of nurturing multicultural global village where festivals are no longer confined within a particular community; it has become a unique phenomenon, a varied combination of mingling flavour of different traditional and cultural diversity as well. With the alteration of communal and financial arrangement the environment of festivals are changing every now and then and so, festivals are now universal to all of us. Here, celebration of Happy New Year is one of them which is no longer the possession of a group of certain people only; it has now become the festival of the worlds people as it does not think about a particular states tradition, its cultural value, its religion and a social phenomenon.
New Year celebration is not though our traditional cultural heritage; nevertheless, we observe this graceful event enthusiastically every year with a great devotion to show respect to the others cultural value because of its global recognition and also be a prominent member of the global village and so, we can diversify our cultural value branding new year celebration before world to know that Bangladesh is a communal country after all. Moreover, with the passage of time, festival has become universal by surpassing the panorama of the national border and we, the people of the world are greatly indebted to our respective cultural heritage. Therefore, the colour, the festive atmosphere, unique taste and excitement, religious ethics and the historic values are all the important ingredients of an event like New Year celebration; and it does not fact whatever it is a traditional, religious, historical or a social one.
To have a better understanding, we need to know the origin of New Year. In the early days, the ancient Romans gave each other New Years gifts of branches from sacred trees. In later years, they gave gold-covered nuts or coins imprinted with pictures of Janus, the god of gates, doors, and beginnings. January was named after Janus, who was depicted as having two faces. One face of Janus looked back into the past, and the other peered forward to the future. During the Roman domination, Julius Caesar felt that the traditional Roman calendar was in dire need of reforming and for that reason, he decided to reform it and so, in 46 B.C. Julius Caesar introduced a new, solar-based calendar that was a vast improvement on the ancient Roman calendar, which was a lunar system that had become wildly inaccurate over the years. Moreover, Caesar felt that the month, January named after this god, Janus would be the appropriate door to the year. The Julian calendar decreed that the New Year would occur in January 1st, and within the Roman world, January 1st became the consistently observed start of the New Year.
But, the celebration of the new year on January 1st is a relatively new phenomenon as in 45 B.C. and it is celebrated for the first time in history before taking effect on the Julian calendar and so, our modern celebration of this day stems from an ancient Roman custom. Here, there are more facts related to the New Year celebration. It was about five hundred years later, in 1582, Pope Gregory XIII introduced the Gregorian calendar which was adopted immediately in some areas of Europe but, unfortunately it was not used in various countries until even centuries later. For example, the United Kingdom and the United States started observing the Gregorian calendar in 1752, in which 11 days were dropped. It is significant to note that not all cultures follow the Gregorian calendar in observing New Years Eve and New Years Day. For example the New Year in the Hindu, Chinese, Coptic, Jewish, Islamic calendars differ to that of the Gregorian calendar.
Every year people of the world passionately wait for the arrival of New Year celebration and so, New Years Eve conveys an awesome mingling sensation for many people. Someone celebrates the end of the year gone by and warmly welcomes the new one; some people have a sense of nostalgia which reminds them of the events took place in their lives in the past twelve months and many people start thinking about their New Years resolutions. After all, it is a day of romance and indulgence and it might seem like a secular celebration. But, underneath all that glitter and sparkle is an ancient holiday with deep spiritual roots and so, people have been observing the end of one year and the beginning of the new one. Though New Year celebration is one of the oldest holidays in the world, the exact date and nature of the festivities has been changed with the passage of time. Here, someone celebrates the day as a token of pure love for someone beloved; someone takes the opportunity to learn a moral lesson and also to make a positive change in their life from the prior years mistakes and many people observe the day to bring good luck and success in the upcoming year.
Do the people of Bangladeshi observe the New Year celebration? The answer will definitely be why not? In Bangladesh, people do also celebrate the New Year celebration with a grand manner. After the 31st night of every December, we celebrate the New Year celebration with its unique flavor. Although it is not our traditional event like the English people, we do celebrate the event in our own flavor harmonizing with the rest of the world. In the era of globalization, every country is now the member of the global village and so, there is nothing a single one that the possession of the particular countrys own. Festivals are now universal to all of us and every event has its own identity which is deep-rooted in our collective life and amusing us from generation to generation.
People of varied interest celebrate the day with a great enthusiasm. Everything wears a festive look with the magical touch of New Year arrival in Bangladesh and also becomes an integral part of our global culture that epitomizes the cultural traits and solidarity of the common people. At this joyous moment, people of all classes wear different colorful dresses and indulge in fun making activities such as singing, playing games, dancing, and attending parties.
Beginning of the day people greet and wish each others wellbeing by saying many happy returns of the day; exchanging messages, greeting cards and gifts are part and parcel of this event. Moreover, the prominent TV channels telecast live numerous entertaining programmes which are attended by prominent stars and other well-known personalities to celebrate the day. People who old enough like to keep touch in home and like to enjoy the day watching live TV programmes. A great crowd of people gather to attend and have the event, while some individuals prefer to celebrate with their dear and near one to make the event more special. The fun filled occasion is considered a great opportunity to get closer to the loved ones in our life and to revive contact with the lost friends and in this way it connects a harmonious relationship between the lost and the new one. The idea is to wave goodbye to the year gone-by and welcome the New Year in the hope that it will bring unalloyed pleasure and bliss in everyones life.
In the eve of the New Year celebration people become very much passionate in evoking the previous years memory; they like to forget the misfortunes that occurred in their struggling life and start their new life journey with the blending of new hopes and aspirations. During the last year many events took place here in Bangladesh; some events have enriched and embellished our poor life leading, some things that make us glorious and push Bangladesh in the main stream of development, some events make Bangladesh historic in the world map, some pioneer initiatives, far-reaching policy, unbelievable achievements, brave and xenophobic attitude are really praiseworthy approach that will absolutely boost up our young talented, old energetic and the all aggressive minded people of Bangladesh.
In time of peril of a country, communal harmony is urged to be demonstrated; harmony, it does not come out demonstration of fear and threatening plight, it begets to ensuring the inviolability of all faiths without any preference of particular casts and creeds. It is also true that life is not a bad of roses; it is full of struggle that needs to be overcome to pave the New Years journey smooth, effective and optimistic. In this regard, our present government is active enough to root out the militancy from the country; nevertheless, some of the people are now pushing the government in backward and diminishing its previous reputation as a true democrat. It is high time government should open their eyes; they need to find out the real culprits who are directly and indirectly trying to vandalize the true democratic impulse of our country, who are the game planners and what are their main purpose - all these questions need to have a concreate solution to ensuring the new years progressing path safe and secured for each and everyone truly and thoroughly.
What are obstacles for Bangladesh in the New Year? The answer will be a difficult one to judge absolutely. The reality is New Year journey of Bangladesh is not smooth enough to go ahead; a lot of hurdles and challenging tasks that need to be overcome to pave its journey meaningful and fruitful. We have the challenge of materializing the vision 2021, 2030 and 2041; we have the challenges of overwhelming population, poverty alleviation, poor literacy rate, social prejudices, gender disproportion, low status of income and living, male dominating societies, poor healthcare system, social injustice, extremism, criminal offenses and so on.
The writer is Assistant Deputy Secretary, Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association, (BKMEA). E-mail: [email protected]
