Google doodle celebrates Pohela Boishakh

The world’s most popular search engine Google is celebrating Pohela Boishakh, the first day of the Bengali calendar, featuring a colourful animated doodle this year.

The banner on google home page shows a young boy or girl is trying to illustrate some characters look like the portraits hoisted above Mangal Shobhajatra, a mass procession that takes place at Dhaka University campus on Pohela Boishakh.

During the procession, colourful masks of tigers, owls and other creatures native to Bangladesh are hoisted above the celebrating crowds.

Although each sign has a different meaning, collectively the doodle seems to urge peole to draw and cherish the Bengali native culture, go ahead with peace and harmony.

Meanwhile, the first day of Bangla New Year 1428 on Wednesday has started amid the fresh beginning of a weeklong all-out lockdown to curb the surge in Covid cases.

The government for the second consecutive year has cancelled outdoor celebrations centring the day.

Pohela Boishakh is one of the traditional festivals in the country, which has a pragmatic beginning.

Emperor Akbar, who developed the Bengali calendar over 400 years ago, started observing the day in his tenure to promote keeping business accounts with the calendar.

Originally, the new calendar was intended as a way to instigate uniform tax collection across the land.

In this traditional festival, Bengali businesspeople close their old books and usher in the new ones.