Bangladeshi community shines with music and dance | SLIDESHOW

Published 10:14 am Sunday, April 19, 2015

Reporter staff

The Bangladeshi Community in the South Puget Sound proudly took center stage last Saturday, celebrating the Bengali New Year with traditional song and dance, poetry and fashion.

About 250 people, young and old, attended a cultural program at the Kent Senior Activity Center.

The event is usually celebrated worldwide, particularly in Bangladesh and several states of India by 250-plus million Bengalis.

The new year on the Bengali calendar, 1422, started on April 14. Celebratory events, such as the one in Kent, is symbolic of leaving the old year behind.

Connecting the past to the present is important to the Bangladeshi.

“The next generation won’t know about (our cultural roots) unless we have events like this,” said Mina Sultana, whose father Mizanur Rahman, helped coordinate the Kent event. Sultana is a sophomore studying biology at the University of Washington.

The evening was filled with traditional music, dancing, food, clothing, jewelry merchandise and souvenirs.