Dhaka ready to celebrate Chaitra Sankranti

Chaitra Sankranti is an age-old festival of rural Bangla which marks the last day of a Bangla year. The Bangla calendar is solar, with the year beginning on Pahela Baishakh.  

Music school Shurer Dhara, like previous years, will say goodbye to the Bangla year 1421 and welcome the New Year through elaborate programmes at the open premises of the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in the capital, in association with Channel i. The programme will begin at sundown today which will mark Chaitra Sangkranti with five songs of Pancha-kobi rendered in chorus, led by the chairman and principal of the school, Rezwana Chowdhury Bonya. 

Marking Chaitra Sankranti and Pahela Baishakh, Department of Theatre and Performance Studies of Dhaka University has arranged a four-day theatre show of the production “Champak Nogorer Upokatha” at Nat Mandal in the campus. Staging of the play will start at 7pm every day staring from today. The show will continue till April 16. 

Dhanmondi's Rabindra Sarobar will see “Coca-Cola Alokito Baishakh” from 9pm today, where Nagar Baul James, Dalchhut, Aditi Mohsin, Nemesis and Baul Shafi Mondal and his troupe will perform at the nightlong concert. Blues Communications is organising the event. 

A daylong crafts fair and pitha mela will take place at the premises of Bangladesh National Museum (BNM) marking the occasion today. President of BNM Board of Trusties M Azizur Rahamn will inaugurate the fair at 3pm. Meanwhile, National Chaitra Sankranti Committee is all tucked up to celebrate the Chaitra Sankranti at the Kobi Sufia Kamal Auditorium of the National Museum. The programme will include Poto-chitra exhibition along with Poter Gaan, folk songs, poetry recitation and discussion. This year the organisers have decided to dedicate the festival to Kobial Bijoy Sarkar.