ANANTA DAS

My cultural identity

DEGREE PROGRAMME IN INTERNATIONAL TOURISM

MANAGEMENT
2023
CONTENTS

1 INTRODUCTION OF MY CULTURAL IDENTITY..............................................3

REFERENCES
APPENDICES
1 INTRODUCTION OF MY CULTURAL IDENTITY

My name is Ananta Kumar Das. I am from Bangladesh. Right now, I am studying in

SAMK. I am from a joint family. Its means my parents, grandparents and my uncle
family live together. Total 15 members have of my family. First, of all I am a
Bangladeshi and my mother tongue is Bengali also known as Bangla. And my
religion name is Hinduism also call Hindu. As a Bangladeshi we have lots of cultural
program. I have been seen my whole family eating breakfast together since
childhood. All the women in my family used to help my mother in cooking. And I
used to see the men of my family bow down of my grandparents before going to
work in the morning. It is a means of showing respect and reverence to elders. After
bowing grandparents wish them well. I also learned how to do respect elders if from
the family members. From my childhood to right now I saw my mother perform puja
twice in the morning and the evening. Puja is form of the ritual prayer and of
showing reverence to the gods. Every Hindus family perform puja twice a day. Puja
can be performed individually or collectively in silence or voiced prayer or chant. In
Hinduism we are believed that we have more than 33 million gods and goddesses.
Durga puja is the biggest religious festival for me and our Hindu followers. Durga
puja usually lasts for 5 days. During Durja puja we keep the house clean and tidy.
Durja puja is usually done by everyone in the society together in the temple. Usually,
we all wear new clothes during Durga puja. Relatives visit our house during the Puja
time. And, we have many festivals. Our Bangladeshi large traditional festival is
Pohela Boishakh. Pohela Boishakh is the first day of the Bengali calendar which is
the first day of the Bengali calendar. It is also the official calendar of Bangladesh.
This festival is celebrated on 14 April in Bangladesh. Pohela boishakh is a symbol of
Bengali cultural identity and a reminder of the region’s rich cultural heritage. It is a
time for people to come together and celebrate and reflect on the past year and make
plans for the Future. We are dress up in traditional attire, prepare special dishes and
visit temples to offer prayers. We celebrate this cultural program starting on this day
having breakfast with panta-ilish. Pohela boishakh food is served in clay pots. In the
first week of the Boishakh , Boishakhi mela (fairs) are organized all over the
country.Traditonal products and local items are sold in the fair and also some sweets
item I and all my family go to the fair together. I learned from the Pohela boishakh
how to forget old memories and start new ones. And Nobanno is another biggest
festival in our culture. Its means nobo-onno or new rice/new crop. The festival of the
nobanno in the Bangla month of the Agrahayan is an important event in calendar of
Bangla. At this time ripe rise is brought home from our crop field. All farmers have a
smile on their faces. The smell of the ripe fruit spreads around. On this time my
mother makes pitha(cake) from new paddy rice and we share pitha to neighbors’
houses. This program teaches me how to share everything with everyone. Peoples of
different religions live in our country. They also have different religions programs.
They invite us to their events, and we also invite them to our events. It makes our
relationship better. Moreover, we are the only one nation in the world who have
given their life for their mother tongue. So, we respect our mother tongue a lot. Also,
we have some local traditional songs. We have some national days. Our independent
day is on 16 December. The freedom fighters of our country liberated the country in
1971 through a long bloody war of 9 months. So, we celebrate 16 th December as our
victory day. We observe international mother language day on 21 February in
memory of language martyrs. A month-long book fair is organized in February in
honor of the martyrs. Our national sports name kabaddi. This game is organized in
all parts of the country. Some kinds of drama are organizes in our country. it called
jatra Pala. It is a part of our thousand-year-old tradition. Its unique presentation
alongside jatra songs and dance is a fantastic display of our folklore tales and sagas.
Usually, these events are held on our village market days. Our villages usually have a
village market 2 days a week. We have traditional clothes. Women and men have
different clothes. There are 30 ethnic groups in our country. They have different
languages and cultural identities.

As a Bengali and a Hindu, I am very proud of myself. Because the Bengali nation
has a long history and traditional of thousands of years. And Hinduism has a long
history. I cannot finish writing this long history in such a short time. But my culture
has put me on a much richer level than people of other nations. I have been able to
learn from our culture full conscience, ideals, sacrifice, struggle. I want the heritage
of my country to survive for ages. I will always respect my country, religion, history
and tradition and try to preserve them. Because we are the legacy of these. So, it is
our responsibility to sustain this long time.