Sabbir Alam Babu, Bhola

Among the eternal traditions of the abhaman village-Bengal, the festival of Bahari Pithapuli and Nabanna in Poushparvan is no longer the same. ‘Bhampa pitha tore khaite giya amar mukhta puira gechere’ is a reminder of this popular song and the story of Bengali winter Nabanna pitha festival floats in the deepest corner of our mind.

This festival seems to be slowly disappearing from the culture of rural Bengal. At one time, in the month of Agrahayan, the farmers used to cut the golden paddy in the field by chanting the songs of Bhavia-Bhatiali-Murshidi.

He used to carry a bundle of paddy on his head and collect it in the yard of his house and then he used to separate it by threshing it with a cow. Some of them used to pitch their houses with that straw and some of them used to store it as cattle foodAfter that the work of the peasants would start, as if there was a commotion, they would take care of the household responsibilities, sell some paddy or boil it in hot water for the rice and rice of the household and then leave some paddy for cooking to make pitha which is called locally (alba) paddy. Some of the paddy was then stored in the land as seedbed for planting the next paddy seedlings.

With all these activities, the peasants of the village used to cut the alba paddy in the threshing floor and make house-to-house, house-to-house decorations of the new food design with nutritious cakes or the festival of Nabanna. In addition to dancing and singing all night long, one would go to another person's house or send a cake. It would show sincerity and heart among themselves. But in the evolution of time, in the age of modernity, the long-standing traditional Nabanna festival of Bengal is about to be lost today.

Farmer Quader said, ‘Now farmers want more crops and profit in less time, in less space. So he doesn't want to cultivate that old variety of paddy. Erie-Boro paddy, a variety of nutritious rice including Aus, Aman, Geys, Kalijira due to the profit-seeking farmers in the aggression of fertilizers and pesticides, are unwilling to cultivate due to low profit. Moreover, with the help of advanced technology, with the help of various machines including urka, tractor, low cost, in a short time, all the process from cutting paddy from field to home delivery of rice is done in the machine and even the rice powder of pitha teri is also in the machine. So the amazement of that navanna is no longer available. In addition to this, cake shops are now being set up in the cities as well as in the villages. As a result, most busy people buy cakes and eat them.