Also there are some common nonreligious festivals, which are observed countrywide by people irrespective of races. Pohela Boishakh and Pohela Falgun are such festival. National festivals areIndependence Day(26th March),21st February(the National Mourning Day and World Mother Language Day),The Victory Day(16th December), Rabindra & Nazrul Jayanti etc.
Pohela Boishakh is the first day of the Bangla Calendar. Pohela Boishakh is celebrated in a festive manner in both Bangladesh and West Bengal. Pohela Boishakh connects all ethnic Bengalis irrespective of religious and regional differences. In Bangladesh, Pohela Boishakh is a national holiday and in West Bengal it is a public holiday. It falls on April 14 or April 15 of the Gregorian calendar depending on the use of the new amended or the old Bangla calendar respectively. In Bangladesh, it is celebrated on April 14 according to the official amended calendar designed by the Bangla Academy. New Year's festivities are closely linked with rural life in Bengal. Usually on Pohela Boishakh, people dress in colorful fine clothes. They spend much of the day visiting relatives, friends, and neighbors. Special foods are prepared to entertain guests. Boishakhi fairs are arranged in many parts of the country. Various agricultural products, traditional handicrafts, toys, cosmetics, as well as various kinds of food and sweets are sold at these fairs. The fairs also provide entertainment, with singers and dancers staging jatra (traditional plays), pala gan, kobigan, jarigan, gambhira gan, gazir gan and alkap gan.
Bangladeshi community through out the USA also celebrate the festival like Pohela Boishak in the memory of Bangladeshi culture.
Pahela Falgun, February 13 is the first day of spring according to Bengali calendar. Pahela Falgun brings new life to the cultural festivals the Bengali speaking people enjoy. The nature takes a green look during this time, with new leaves in the trees; butterflies and bees flying from flower to flowers, blooming in the garden. People celebrate the day amidst festivity at the end of a comparatively lazy winter. Wearing traditional yellow coloured saris, youth girls welcome the arrival of the spring. In the day, women look charming with yellow sari and wear a lot of ornaments made of lovely yellow flower gardenia and men in punjabi and pajama. The fairs are held in Dhaka as well as in other parts of the country. But the most colourful daylong gatherings take place at Book Fair and the Institute of Fine Art, Ramna Park and other different places in the city. There are also different entertainment takes place through out the city, such as pala gan, gazir gan, and modern musical concert.
