Pohela Boishakh

Poila Boishakh
Poyla Baisakh celebration in Dhaka, Bangladesh
Official name	পয়লা বৈশাখ
Observed by	Bengali people
Celebrations	Haal Khata, Boishakhi Mela
Observances	India and Bangladesh (14 April)
Frequency	annual
Related to	Sri Lankan New Year, Thai New Year, Cambodian New Year, Burmese New Year, Lao New Year, Tamil New Year

Poila/Poyla Boishakh (Bengali: পয়লা বৈশাখ, or Bengali New Year Bengali: বাংলা নববর্ষ, Bangla Nôbobôrsho) is the first day of the Bengali calendar, celebrated on 14 April or 15 April in Bangladesh and in the Indian states of West Bengal and Tripura by the Bengali people and also by minor Bengali communities in other Indian states, including Assam, Jharkhand and Orrisa. It coincides with the New Year's days of numerous Southern Asian calendars like Tamil new year Puthandu. The traditional greeting for Bengali New Year is শুভ নববর্ষ "Shubhô Nôbobôrsho" which is literally "Happy New Year".

In Bengali, Poila (Bengali: পয়লা) stands for ‘first’ and Boishakh (Bengali: বৈশাখ) is the first month of the Bengali calendar. Bengali New Year was referred to in Bengali as "New Year" (Bengali: নববর্ষ Noboborsho) or "First of Boishakh" (Bengali: পহেলা বৈশাখ Pôhela Boishakh).

The Bengali calendar is tied to the Indian solar calendar, based on the Surya Siddhanta. The first day of the Bengali year coincides with the mid-April new year in Mithila, Assam, Burma, Cambodia, Kerala, Manipur, Nepal, Odisha, Sri Lanka, Tamil Nadu and Thailand. All Bengali Hindus follow the traditional date of 15 April as Poila Boishakh. The length of a year is counted as 365 days, as in the Gregorian calendar. However, the actual time taken by the earth in its revolution around the sun is 365 days 5 hours 48 minutes and 47 seconds. To make up this discrepancy, the Gregorian calendar adds an extra day, to make a leap year, to the month of February every fourth year (except in years divisible by 100 but not by 400). To counter this discrepancy, and to make the Bengali calendar more precise, the following recommendations of the Bangla Academy are followed: