In West Bengal of India and Bangladesh it is known as Dolyatra (Doul Jatra) or Basanta-Utsab ("spring festival").
Basanta-Utsab is also called Holi, the Festival of Colors.
It is a popular Hindu spring festival observed in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, and countries with large Hindu diaspora populations, such as Suriname, Guyana, South Africa, Trinidad, the UK, Mauritius, and Fiji.
The most celebrated Holi is that of the Braj region, in locations connected to the god Krishna: Mathura, Vrindavan, Nandagaon, and Barsana. These places have become tourist destinations during the festive season of Holi, which lasts here to up to sixteen days.
The main day, Holi, also known as Dhulheti, Dhulandi or Dhulendi, is celebrated by people throwing colored powder and colored water at each other. Bonfires are lit the day before, also known as Holika Dahan (burning of Holika) or Chhoti Holi (little Holi). The bonfires are lit in memory of the miraculous escape that young Prahlad accomplished when Demoness Holika, sister of Hiranyakashipu, carried him into the fire. Holika was burnt but Prahlad, a staunch devotee of god Vishnu, escaped without any injuries due to his unshakable devotion. Holika Dahan is referred to as Kama Dahanam in Andhra Pradesh.
Holi is celebrated at the end of the winter season on the last full moon day of the lunar month Phalguna (February/March), (Phalgun Purnima), which usually falls in the later part of February or March.
In 2009, Holi (Dhulandi) was on March 11 and Holika Dahan was on March 10.
Rangapanchami occurs a few days later on a Panchami (fifth day of the full moon), marking the end of festivities involving colors.
Rangapanchami occurs a few days later on a Panchami (fifth day of the full moon), marking the end of festivities involving colors.
(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
The population of Bangladesh is greater than Russia’s.
Dhaka, the capital, is now the ninth most populous city on earth with some 12 million inhabitants, a megalopolis that, like all others, is firmly enmeshed with world economics and culture.
Even so, two thirds of Bangladesh’s people farm for a living, and because of the nation’s geography, dominated by immense rivers and weather blowing in from the Bay of Bengal, contemporary culture is still steeped in the seasons.
Bangladesh actually observes not two or four but six seasons, “Grisma (summer), Barsa (rainy), Sarat (autumn), Hemanta (late autumn), Shhit (winter) and Basanta (spring).”
And by the Bangali calendar Basanta/Spring begins with a celebration known as Basanta Utsab.
“People of all ages with yellow and festive dress gathered at the compound of Farida Biddayatan, to welcome the season.”
An audience showered with flower petals is treated to Bangali dance, music, and poetry.
The young women do it up especially right with Bashonti (yellow) sarees and alluring eye paint.
While the celebration of spring likely has roots in rural folk tradition, the current outpouring of cultural performances in the capitol seems to have begun more recently. Chhayanaut, a cultural organization, started holding artistic programmes “celebrating the advent of spring in the city in the late 1960’s,” and the annual event “gradually gained a wide currency among the people….It is a reunion for the people who love the Bangali culture, irrespective of caste, creed and colour.”
Consider what wintertime’s like if you live on the streets, as many thousands do in Bangladesh. It’s no wonder the Bangali people call Spring (Basanta) king of seasons, a king crowned with shimul and palash.
Yet it seems no coincidence that the festival arrives just at Valentine’s Day, a western holiday that is being adopted in much of urban Bangladesh. Basanta Utsab, as well as seasonal, is a cultural pushback, an affirmation of Bangla history and customs as not only spring but Western styles and habits advance.
One commentator wrote, “The people of the Parishad think that Basanta Utsab is not merely a cultural programme, involving music, dance or performing arts; it is rather an effort to introduce the Bangali culture to the new generation.”
And what finer introduction than young women adorned with yellow silks, yellow bands of flowers.
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