Search engine giant Google has created a doodle depicting the Mongol Shobhajatra procession to welcome Pahela Boishakh, the first day of the Bangla new year.
The doodle, featuring a tiger, has been on Google's homepage since early Sunday.
Mongol Shobhajatra was inscribed on Unesco’s Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in November 2016. The procession, introduced in Jessore in 1985, and replicated in Dhaka in 1989, features large colourful masks, carnival floats of birds and animals, and other motifs of Bangladeshi culture.
Over the years, it has become a key element of the Pahela Boishakh celebrations among Bangalees at home and abroad.
Pahela Boishakh celebrations started during Mughal Emperor Akbar's reign, when it was customary to clear all dues on the last day of the Bangla month Chaitra as businessmen would open "halkhata" — new books of accounts for the new year.
