Members of the Bengali community marked the Bengal New Year in a festive spirit in Auckland on May 14, 2014, a day prior to the actual celebration.
Bengalis mark this as Year 1421, about 593 years less than the Christian Calendar.
The event, held at the Western Spring Garden Community Hall, was a fun-filled night with patriotic and folk songs, a dress-up competition and authentic Bengali food.
Tapas Mandal, who organised the event under his company called ‘@ Ur Service Event Management’ was the anchor along with Ujjal Gosh.
He said that it was a family festival with an emphasis on children.
“Little Rishay inaugurated the programme rendering ‘Amar Sonar Bangla Ami Tomay Bhalobasi’ (My Golden Bengal, I love you), followed by music performances by a number of well-known local artistes. They included Abu Houque-Shahin, Flora Nahan, Dr Hubert De Cruz, Mousumi Biswas, Rani Aklima and Sithi Saha,” he said.
Bengali Poems were recited Recitation done by Setu Kazi, Raunak Giri, he added.
“The Festival included a ‘Best Dress Up Competition and theme Bengali Dress, the winners of which were respectively Manishankar Biswas and Rama Saha.”
A number of lucky winners at the raffle went home with a Carom Board, Cordless Phone, CD Player, Digital Camera and Pressure Cooker.
