Colourful rally held in Aqaba to celebrate Bangla New Year

AMMAN — The Bangladeshi embassy in Jordan organised a rally for the first time in the port city of Aqaba on the occasion of Bengali New Year 1429. 

This is the first time such an event has been organised in Jordan. Led by Bangladesh’s Ambassador to Jordan Nahida Sobhan, a large number of embassy officials and staff, expatriate Bangladeshis and workers working in Aqaba marched through the streets of Aqaba Special Economic Zone with prior permission from ASEZA, according to an embassy statement.

At the end of the rally, the ambassador, in her brief speech, said that the celebration of Bengali New Year is one of the aspects of ancient Bengali tradition. 

Over the decades, the rally, named “Mangal Shovajatra” in Bengali, has become “the bearer of Bangladeshi culture which also upholds the culture of all nations”, the statement said. 

“Mangal Shovajatra” is a mass procession that takes place on the first day of the Bengali New Year. The festival is considered as an expression of the secular identity of the Bangladeshi people and as a way to promote unity, the statement said. It was declared an intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO in 2016.