The Mangal Shobhajatra on Pohela Baishakh is integral to the celebrations of Bangla New Year. Arranged by the students of Institute of Fine Arts at Dhaka University, it is the largest secular festival close to the hearts of Bangalees.
The Mangal Shobhajatra is a mass procession that takes place at dawn on the first day of the Bengali New Year where the university students make brightly-coloured, hand-held masks besides other artifacts for their parade which is central to the celebrations.
Although the procession has been inscribed in UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, the students take it upon themselves to organise the rally without any funding from outside.
The students don’t even rely on the university authorities to fund a procession of this magnitude. In fact, the existing students and alumni all pitch in to make the colourful masks, potteries and motifs that have become an inherent part of the Mangal Shobhajatra. The sales of this merchandise fill up the holes in the fund and sometimes there’s a little surplus.
The students, however, don’t see it as a business endeavour. Their hard work is solely for the love of art and culture and everything the procession entails.
Given the international recognition, the cultural ministry offered to lend support to make the most out of it but so far the students have refrained from accepting any help in order to avoid any kind of influence and retain the freedom to organise the beloved festival as they wish.
Every year a different batch of the faculty of fine arts is given the opportunity to arrange the Mangal Shobhajatra.
This year batch 21 is in full swing making potteries and masks and other items and sales have already started.
Their slogan for this year’s rally is ‘mostok tulite dao ananto akashey,’ a line from Rabindranath Tagore’s poem ‘Noibadda.’
“The sales have just started and hence it's bit slow. But it’ll pick up near the end,” said Adiyanti Rai Urmi, a student of the fine arts faculty.
She said that only 10 percent of the masks were ready and the work was underway to make more.
In addition to the masks, students are making motifs of various animals such as tigers, peacocks, butterflies and many more and 20 percent of the work was complete, according to Gourango Boiragi, also a student.
Fine Arts faculty Dean Professor Nisar Hossain said that even though the students don’t receive any aid, the sale of the masks, motifs, and potteries rack up more than Tk 1 million.
“Since it was internationally recognised, the home ministry wanted to help but the students didn’t accept it,” he said.
Students feel that letting the government help will politicise their beloved event and they want to keep it clean in all circumstances.