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Thali

Next: 14 Apr 2027

Pohela Boishakh

Bengali New Year, begun in Bangladesh with fermented rice, fried hilsa and mashed vegetables.

Mongol Shovajatra one of the traditional culture of Bangladeshi during Bengali New Year festival.
Photo: Abidhasan00, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

What is eaten for Pohela Boishakh

Pohela Boishakh is the first day of the Bengali year, kept on 14 April in Bangladesh and a day later in West Bengal. In Dhaka the morning meal is panta bhat, cooked rice soaked overnight in water, eaten with fried hilsa, green chilli, onion and several kinds of bhorta, which are mashed vegetables or fish with mustard oil. It is a farmer's breakfast taken up by the city. Shopkeepers open new account books and give customers sweets. In Kolkata families eat a full Bengali lunch that ends with sweet yoghurt.

The dishes

Panta bhatRice soaked overnight, the New Year breakfast in Bangladesh.Mishti doiSweet set yoghurt that ends the meal.RasgullaGiven to customers when the new account books open.SandeshFresh cheese sweet shared on the day.

Also part of it, and being written: Ilish (Hilsa, fried and eaten with the soaked rice.).

About this page

Written by the Thali desk with AI assistance. Background: "Pohela Boishakh" on Wikipedia. Customs differ from family to family and place to place. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

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