Nobanno Utshob

“Nobanno” means “New Rice” and “Utshob” means “Celebration”. The main new rice comes at the Bengali month of Agrayhan and the festival is held at the last part of the month .Nobanno Utshob is a Bengali harvest celebration which is celebrated with food, dance and music in present Bangladesh and west Bengal. Country’s biggest agricultural festival, Nobanno Utshob, is being celebrated across the country. The Nobanno is celebrated by various kinds of local cakes and sweets which are all made from the new rice they harvested. Each year, a festival is organized to celebrate the harvesting of Aman which is known as the festival of harvest.

The festival is celebrated with mela which are called Nabanna Mela. Its one of the numerous festivals that gave the name “Baro Mase Tero Parban” (thirteen festivals in twelve months) to the land of Bengal. Although the nabanna parban is somewhat different from other ones since it is not connected to a religion such as “Ratha Yatra”. The villagers and locals from both the major religious groups join the festival with equal participation. There are also several fertility rituals which make the festival truly a harvest ritual. The festival gets a lot of support from the creative army of Bengali culture. Several poets, musicians, baul and painters flock to such mass gatherings. There is a famous play written on nabanna by Bijon Bhattacharya which depicts the sad incident of the great Bengal Famine of 1943.People from several villages of Howrah and even from other districts of West Bengal come here.

People not only come to visit the Mela. In addition, they participate in many cultural programmes and competitions like ‘Pithe Making’ (Preparation of different sorts of Bengali Cakes), Seat-and Draw, Senior Citizens’ Walking Competition etc. An “Art-Camp” may attract creative minded people where artists from different states will participate. Some rare items of rural Bengal as “Dhenki” (Old-style Domestic Rice Mill), paddy of different varieties directly from the farmers’ house are to be exhibited in the Exhibition ground. You can taste some delicious Bengali dishes like Pati-sapta, Payesh (the latest addition is ‘Vegetable Payesh’), Jilipipi (not Jilipi) etc. during the festival. Bengal’s time-honoured culture and heritage will be presented to you in forms of Baul song, Chhou-dance, Jatra, Tarja, Kobi-gaan, etc. These artists come from different parts of the state to perform their talent and expertise in front of thousands of appreciative gatherings. Moreover, you can refurbish your collection of folk arts from the ‘exhibition-cum-sale’ stalls of handicrafts made by rural artisans.

In fact this is a traditional festival of Bengalis life and culture but for the effect of urbanization it has been lost its color and beauty. We should conscious about it so that it is not to be lost its flavor and color. Because it is a part of our glorious ancient culture and life.

Source: Nobanno Utshob in Bangladesh