‘Dol Jatra’ Celebrated With Traditional Fanfare Ashis Sinha I Dhanbad: Dol Jatra, Bengali community’s Holi, was celebrated with traditional fanfare in Dhanbad on Sunday. In Bengal, Odisha and Assam, Holi festival is observed as ‘Dol Purnima’ or ‘Dol Jatra’ which is a major festival of Bengali’s. The festival, organised by Chandan Studio at Sarovar Park in Bekarbandh area, kicked-off with Plash flower dance. Dhanbad Municipal Commissioner Chandrasekher Agarwal and his wife were the chief guests on the occasion. Over hundreds of people from Bangali families including newly born to late eighty thronged the park for celebrations, and enthusiastically participated in many events. This festival is dedicated to Lord Sri Krishna. On this auspicious day, an image of Krishna, richly adorned and besmeared with Abir powder, is taken out in procession, in a swinging palanquin, decorated with flowers, leaves, colored clothes and papers, said Chandan Paul. “The procession proceeds with the accompaniment of music, blaring of conch shells, trumpets and shouts of ‘Jai’ and ‘Hari Bol’ in Odisha,” he added. The day is also celebrated as the birthday of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, mostly in Bengal, Puri in Odisha, Mathura and Vrindavan in Uttar Pradesh, said Arti Paul co-coordinator of the programme. “The festival, ‘Dol Jatra’, ‘Dol Utsav’ or ‘Dol Purnima’ is said to be initiated by the king Indradyumna in Vrindavan, which continues for five days, starting from the Shukla-Chaturdashi of Phalguna,” she added. In honour of Agni and to worship an image of Lord Krishna is kept on a swing (dola) where devotees perform special pujas and offer their reverence, said Pompa a devotee. The head of the family observes fast and prays to Lord Krishna and Agnidev. After all the traditional rituals, they smear gulal and offer “bhog” to both Krishna and Agnidev, she said. Dressed up in saffron-coloured clothes devotees also wear garlands of fragrant flowers, they sing and dance to the accompaniment of musical instruments like Ektara, Dubri, Veena and other musical instruments in a bid to adore the God, said Pompa. A lucky draw was also held at the end of the programme. At least 20 new rising artists were felicitated during the occasion. The purpose of this event is to preserve our Bengali cultural and festival, said Chandan Aiming to preserve it, events were shot full-frame, mirror less, drone and 4K cameras. Gimbal, Slider and DSLR camera were also used. Video of this ‘Dol festival’ will soon be released on “YouTube”, he said. The prestigious dance school of Dhanbad, Sompa Mukherjee Dance Group- Hirapur Durga Temple, Parul Dance Academy -Hari Mandir, Sadhana Dance Arts Center Hirapur, Shruti Sen Dance Group - Jharia actively participated in the events. Beside others, Shampa Sarkar, Shampa Mukherjee, Ricky Bagati, Jhilik Baghati, Saswati Sen, Chhotan Chaudhary, Sangeeta Chatterjee, Sanjay Sengupta, Pompa Pal, Sandeep Chakraborty, Sanjeev Mitra, Rohit, Rajkumar, Sunil, Chhotu, Rahul, Ramesh Gandhi played and important role in making the event successful..