Poush Mela 2018

The Pous Mela at Shantiniketan is held every year around December 22 the date on which Maharshi Devendranath Tagore with twenty followers accepted the Brahma creed from Ram Chandra Vidyabagish on 21 December 1843 (7 Poush 1250 according to the Bengali calendar). This was the basis of Poush Utsav (the Festival of Poush) at Santiniketan. At dawn, Santiniketan wakes up to the soft music of shehnai. The first to enter the scenario is the Vaitalik group, who go round the ashrama (hermitage) singing songs. It is followed by a prayer-meeting at Chhatimtala. Then the entire congregation moves on to Uttarayan singing songs.

Poush Mela is one of the main festivals in the district of Birbhum of West Bengal. Pous Mela is characterized by its live performances of Bengali folk music, specially bauls. Traditional bauls, wandering minstrels singing Bengali songs. Tribal dances (Santali) are also the part of the fair. The fair takes place for a week and in that week the place takes a different shape with people from different parts of the world. On one side you can get the true spirit of Bengal in the form of local music and dance on the other hand people from different part of the country come and blends perfectly. On that day, a firework display was held in earlier days after evening prayers.