Bengali New Year

Pohela Boishakh, the first day of the Bangla year, is Bangladesh’s most visible secular-cultural festival. It arrives during the hot spring season and is rooted in the Bengali calendar’s agricultural and commercial rhythms, including the tradition of hal khata, or opening new account books. Today it brings together people of many faiths through music, clothing, food and public art.

Dhaka’s Mangal Shobhajatra procession has become an especially recognisable expression of the holiday’s inclusive civic character, while fairs and programmes take place throughout the country. Families often wear red and white, eat festive dishes and begin the year with relatives or friends. Although the historical calendar has had variations, Bangladesh’s public holiday is observed on April 14.

Bengali New Year is leave under executive order in the 2026 government notification rather than a general holiday, but government offices and scheduled banks nevertheless close on Tuesday, April 14. It opens Bangla year 1433 under Bangladesh's revised national calendar. The Mangal Shobhajatra developed from a procession organised by Dhaka University's Faculty of Fine Art in 1989 and was inscribed by UNESCO in 2016; it is one major expression of Pohela Boishakh, not a template for every district's fairs and household customs.