Pohela Boishakh: Bengali New Year
The first day of Boishakh and the first day of the Bengali year
When is Pohela Boishakh?
Pohela Boishakh is 1 Boishakh, the first day of the Bengali year. In Bangladesh it falls on 14 April every year and is a public holiday.
This Year
Pohela Boishakh 1433 was on 14 April 2026.
History & Significance
The Bengali year goes back to the Mughal emperor Akbar. Land tax was then collected by the Hijri calendar, but a lunar year does not stay in step with the harvest. In 1584 a new year count tied to the crop season was introduced to make things easier for farmers, and it later came to be called Bangabda. The name Boishakh comes from the star Vishakha. The day began as a time for paying tax and settling accounts, and over the centuries it grew into the biggest festival Bengalis have.
The calendar as it stands today was fixed in two steps. In 1987 the government adopted the Bangla Academy's reformed calendar, and in 2019 it was revised again. Now the six months from Boishakh to Ashwin have 31 days, Kartik to Magh and Chaitra have 30, and Falgun has 29, or 30 in a leap year. Because the lengths are fixed, Pohela Boishakh is always 14 April, and the national days keep the same Bengali dates every year.
How Pohela Boishakh Is Celebrated
Mangal Shobhajatra
On the morning of Pohela Boishakh this procession sets out from the Faculty of Fine Arts at Dhaka University. Students spend weeks building huge figures of tigers, owls, birds and fish and painting bright masks, and these are carried through the streets. It began in 1989 as Ananda Shobhajatra and later became known as Mangal Shobhajatra. UNESCO added it to its list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2016. In 2025 it was renamed Barshabaran Ananda Shobhajatra.
Halkhata
Halkhata is the new account book for the new year. Shopkeepers and traders close their old ledgers on this day and open fresh ones. Regular customers are invited over, they clear what they owe, and the shopkeeper serves them sweets. The custom is still lively in the gold shops of Tantibazar and Shankharibazar in Old Dhaka.
Boishakhi Mela (Fair)
Boishakhi fairs are held in villages and market towns, and in the cities too. A fair has folk and Baul songs, jatra, puppet shows, a Ferris wheel, clay toys, handicrafts and food stalls. In Dhaka the day begins under the banyan tree at Ramna, where Chhayanaut has welcomed the new year with songs at dawn since 1967. The best known of those songs is Tagore's 'Esho He Boishakh'.
Cultural Programs
All day, cultural groups put on music, dance, recitation and art shows. People go out dressed for the occasion, women in red and white saris and men in panjabi and pajama.
Pohela Boishakh Food
The dishes found on almost every table on the first day of Boishakh
Panta Bhat & Ilish
Rice cooked the night before and left to soak in water becomes panta by morning. It is eaten with fried hilsa, green chilli, onion and a little dried fish. Panta is the everyday breakfast of Bengali farmers. Eating it with hilsa on Boishakh is not an old custom, though. It spread from the Ramna celebrations in the 1980s. Catching young hilsa is banned at this time of year, so many people now skip the hilsa and have panta with another fish or just with bhorta.
Bhorta Platter
Panta needs bhorta beside it. Aubergine, potato, lentil, shrimp or dried fish, each household makes what it has. The mash is worked by hand with mustard oil, onion and charred chilli, and several kinds are served together on one plate.
Sweets & Yogurt
Offering sweets at the new year is an old custom. Roshogolla, chomchom, kalojam, sandesh and mishti doi come from the sweet shop, while payesh is made at home. Customers who come for halkhata are also sent off with a packet of sweets.
Shutki (Dried Fish)
Some fry shutki, some mash it into bhorta, and some cook it into a hot, dry curry. In the Chattogram and Sylhet regions it is always on the Boishakh table. Its sharp, strong flavour goes well with the mild taste of panta.
Chaler Payesh
Rice pudding cooked with milk, sugar and cardamom. Payesh is made on any happy occasion, and almost every home cooks it on the first day of the year. Some people use jaggery in place of sugar.
Patishapta & Pitha
Patishapta is a thin rolled crepe filled with coconut and jaggery, or with thickened milk. Pitha is mostly winter food, but stalls selling bhapa, chitoi and patishapta turn up at Boishakhi fairs and city events.
Pohela Boishakh in Bangladesh
In Bangladesh Pohela Boishakh is a public holiday and the largest festival that people of every faith share. In Dhaka the day starts at dawn with Chhayanaut's songs under the banyan tree at Ramna, and then the procession leaves the Faculty of Fine Arts. Shops and restaurants put on special Boishakhi menus. In the Chittagong Hill Tracts the same days are Boisabi, which is Boisu for the Tripura, Sangrai for the Marma and Biju for the Chakma.
Pohela Boishakh in West Bengal
In West Bengal the day is called Poila Boishakh or Noboborsho. Traders take their new ledgers to the Kalighat or Dakshineswar temple for a puja and then hold halkhata at their shops. Kolkata and the district towns have music programmes, fairs and plenty of eating. The almanac there follows the Surya Siddhanta, so Poila Boishakh falls on 14 or 15 April, and in most years on the 15th.
What to Wear
The colours of Boishakh are red and white. Women usually wear a white cotton sari with a red border and put flowers in their hair. Men wear a white or red and white panjabi. Many young people choose a fatua, a salwar kameez or any bright outfit they like.