Staff Correspondent: The Bangalee nation especially the youths with their animated vigour and colourful mind will celebrate Pahela Falgun, a festival welcoming the advent of spring, on Sunday to leave a message to all that love, affection, respect and commitment should be cornerstones of removing all ills and building the nation.

This year the festival comes when the entire world is facing the coronavirus pandemic. Any formal programmes marking the day will not be held on Dhaka University campus this time in view of the pandemic but the people will celebrate the day informally wearing colorful dresses and floral ornaments and offering flowers to dear and near ones.

Bangalees mark the spring festival on the first day of Bengali month of Falgun. It is also called Basanta Utsab. It usually falls on February 13.

Since 2020 it is being coincided with Valentine’s Day on February 14 which has also become a major day in celebration of the festival-loving Bangalees especially the youths.

In 2019, Bangla Academy revised Bangla Calendar to match it with the Gregorian calendar aimed at observing the significant days in line with the historic background.

On the day, the capital Dhaka and other major cities of the country usually become ablaze with mirth and merriment as curious youngsters wear yellow and red dresses, flower-made ornaments and attend traditional musical functions.

But this year, the festival will be celebrated in a small scale avoiding gathering.

Clad in yellow sarees and panjabis, people specially the youths will visit Dhaka University campus, which is considered the focul point of the celebration, Ramna Park, Suhrawardy Udyan, Rabindra Sarobar, Dhanmondi Lake, Hatirjheel and different other places in the capital.

City markets were also seen busy with purchasers buying colorful panjabees and sarees and other traditional dresses ahead of the festival.

Different brands of garment products, shoes and ornaments are also giving special offer to customers on the eve of the two major festivals.

Newspapers have been also publishing special supplements for the last couple of days carrying the message of the festival.

People usually attire colorful “bashonti” (yellow or orange colored) dresses particularly yellow or red panjabis and sarees and present flowers to their soul mates as a token of their profound love for each other. Girls wear floral ornaments like crown.

As spring has arrived with blossom of flowers and new leaves in trees, nature is getting fresher and colorful shape that touch hearts and minds of all ages of people.

The spring has been depicted as the king of all seasons in poetry for its extra-ordinary beauty of nature.

After the dryness of winter, new leaves start to come out again and the nature adorns the branches with new colorful flowers like Shimul, Polash and Marigold denoting the message of arrival of spring.

In nature, it is considered that “Krishnachura” flower brings the message of arrival of spring.

Famous excerpt of Subhash Mukhopadhyay “Phul phutuk na phutuk, aaj Boshonto” beautifully depicts the advent of Basanta Utsab.

“O wind, if winter comes, can spring be far behind?”, a way English romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley described the arrival of spring in his famous poem ‘Ode to the West Wind’.

Everything in nature gives an impression of youthfulness or freshness as if the nature takes a new birth. Colorful flowers, melody of birds or mild touch of the sunshine – everything will make one feel that springtime is the nature’s festival.