Bengali New Year celebrated by big crowds in Dentonia Park and along Danforth Avenue
By SUBRATA KUMAR DAS
The number of the Bengalis living in East York and Scarborough has been growing over the last few years. Consequently, the celebration of Bengali culture and heritage has also been more noticeable and well attended, and that was certainly the case for local Bengali New Year celebrations earlier this week.
Alongside Ekushe February (International Mother Language Day), DurgaPuja and Eid, the significant cultural event that Bengalis celebrate with vibrant enthusiasm is Bengali New Year.
On Sunday, April 14, more than 1,000 people from many different parts of the Greater Toronto Area gathered in at the Bangla Town area near Victoria Park and Danforth avenues to join the Mongol Shobhajatra, a procession for well-being of all as part of the celebrations.
Mongol Shovajatra is a recent feature to celebrate the thousands-year-old new year by the Bengali community. In 1989, it was started in the Dhaka University premises to show a protest against the powers in the government. Since then it has been enthusiastically welcomed by the Bengalis of different strata and gradually it has become a celebration of millions of festive people.
During the last two decades the Dhaka based Pahela Baishakh, the first day of Bengali New Year, celebration through a Mongol Shobhajatra has reached across the district towns in Bangladesh. The declaration of UNESCO for the Mongol Shobhajatra as ‘intangible cultural heritage’ has added extra values to heritage-loving Bengalis. The celebration has now crossed the borders of Bangladesh and now attracts non-Bengalis as well.
Mayor Olivia Chow joined in the celebrations at East York’s Dentonia Park last weekend, as did Scarborough Southwest Councillor Parthi Kandavel.
Local Bengali community members dressed in traditional Panjabi and Sharee started to gather around Detonia Park as the clock struck 12. Afterwards, the crowd with many artifacts with traditional Bengali symbols in hands, proceeded to the grocery store parking lot near Danforth and Victoria Park avenue to start the procession.
The rally passed through Bangla Town along the Danforth to Dawes Road and then returned to the starting point. Later on, a cultural performance was staged.
On the day, many cultural organizations and groups of the Bengalis held events to welcome the New Year and exchange greetings with others.
