Home ›› 15 Feb 2022 ›› Front
The two important occasions -- Valentine’s Day and Pohela Falgun -- that fell on the same day Monday have brought double joy to the pleasure seekers.
The Bengali month of Falgun has adorned nature with its variegated colour that fills the heart of festive Bangalees. The Valentine’s Day is gaining popularity for years while Pohela Falgun confined mostly within urban and sub-urban Bangalee culture carries a rich historical legacy.
For the last two years, Valentine’s Day and Pohela Falgun are being celebrated on the same day due to some changes in the Bengali calendar.
Marking the two occasions that got merged into one, big and small businessmen, vendors, hawkers and traders enjoy boom in their sales. The city denizens get a brief respite from their monotonous life, and bathe in the sea of ecstasy altogether with family and friends.
The capital on 14th February was immersed in the colourful sweet-scented flowers. Places like Dhaka University, Rabindra Sarobar, Uttara, Bahadur Shah Park were crowded with youngsters though the “Boshonto Utsob Udjapon Porishod” -- a committee that organises cultural programmes on Pohela Falgun every year, decided to celebrate the day in a limited scale only at Suhrawardy Udyan.
A cultural programme was held at the historic place early in the morning. Some small local businesses set up stalls near the gate of TSC and Suhrawardy Udyan.
Some stalls sold fashion items, i.e. small handcraft, bangles, and gift items.
Bangles can be found at TSC all the time, but during festivals like Pohel Falgun and Pohela Boishakh, its sale goes up.
Rahima, a bangle seller on the TSC premises, said sales are very good during such occasions.
“People have been buying bangles from us for years. A wide range of colourful bangles of different sizes can be found here and that is why people come to buy from us,” she added.
Food stalls and snacks on the Dhaka University campus are very popular now as the social media influencers are promoting campus food.
On 14th February, there were different snack stalls everywhere. Panipuri and Kachkola Vorta (boiled green banana) are one of the most popular items on the campus.
However, after the lockdown, stalls selling fried shrimp, potato spiral chips, momo, etc, were set up in front of TSC. On this colourful occasion, people also enjoyed those items alongside phuchka, chotpoti, special halim at Hakim Chattar, ghotigaram and peyara vorta.
Ripon, a momo seller, said, sale is good today. Jashim, another panipuri seller, echoed the same as Ripon, saying: “I don’t even have time to breathe. But I am happy with the sales.”
Strawberry Vorta is another special item on the campus and yesterday, people coming from different parts of the city were excited to have some.
A student Ashraful came from Mirpur-1 with his loved one said, “It is a very unique item and we are having it for the first time.”
“It is more beautiful to look at than eating.”
Flower sellers sold more flowers than they had expected. Price is very high this year and the supply is low. But people are buying them anyway.
Jomila, a flower seller at Suhrawardy Udyan, said: “Some flowers were sold out early. The price of roses is very high. This year, we mixed different flowers together to meet the demand.”
